Method and system for processing, by an information retrieval system, user input modifying the information retrieval system

ABSTRACT

In a method and system for hosting a programming environment and processing user input within an information retrieval system, a definition of an expression is received from a user, during a first session between the user and an information retrieval system, the definition specifying an expression format, a response type, and a display format. The definition is stored. During a second session between the user and the information retrieval system, an expression having a semantic structure is received. The semantic structure of the expression is evaluated. A response to the expression is displayed to the user in a user interface according to the display format specified by the definition of the expression type.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for processing userinput. In particular, the present invention relates to methods andsystems for processing, by an information retrieval system, user inputmodifying the information retrieval system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional systems for information retrieval, including systems forquerying hypertext-networked databases, typically require users toprovide precise search terms and may require users to express searchterms using Boolean logic. Other systems for information retrieval, suchas those for querying relational databases, may require users to expressqueries using database programming languages. Many users would prefer touse natural language phrases to express their queries and providingqueries using these precise formats is not intuitive for many users.

Additionally, systems for information retrieval are typically limited tothe retrieval of previously stored information, especially inconventional systems for querying networked resources, such as networksearch engines. Such systems do not typically provide the functionalityrequired to allow a user to modify previously stored information or toadd information to stored data. For example, many systems provide userswith functionality for searching within a document or amongst many,networked document. However, if a user viewing the search results wishedto add information to the collection of documents searched, access to adifferent system would be required. Similarly, a user interacting with asystem for information retrieval typically does not have access tofunctionality for modifying the information retrieval system. Forexample, the user may wish to modify a display of search results or tomodify a particular search result but typically does not have access tofunctionality for doing so.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, a method for hosting a programming environment andprocessing user input within an information retrieval system, adefinition of an expression type is received from a user, during a firstsession between the user and an information retrieval system, thedefinition specifying an expression format, a response type, and adisplay format. The definition of the expression type is stored. Duringa second session between the user and the information retrieval system,an expression having a semantic structure is received from the user. Thesemantic structure of the expression is evaluated. A response to theexpression is displayed to the user in a user interface according to thedisplay format specified by the definition of the expression type.

In one embodiment, a user interface displayed to the user in the firstsession is modified, responsive to the display format specified in thereceived definition. In another embodiment, the definition specifies adisplay format identifying a format of an element of a user interfacedisplaying a response of the specified response type to an expressionhaving the defined expression format. In still another embodiment, thedefinition specifies a display format modifying an element of a userinterface displaying a response to the expression. In yet anotherembodiment, a response to the expression is displayed to the second useraccording to the display format specified by the definition of theexpression type.

In another aspect, an information retrieval system hosting a programmingenvironment and processing user input includes an information retrievalsystem, an information retrieval component, and a user interface module.The information retrieval system executes in a virtual machine on aserver. The information retrieval component is provided by theinformation retrieval system and is in communication with a search indexand a collection of information. The user interface module is providedby the interaction environment and is in communication with theinformation retrieval component.

The user interface module includes a transceiver, a semantic evaluator,and a display component. The transceiver receives, during a firstsession between a user and the information retrieval system, from theuser, a definition of an expression type, the definition specifying anexpression format, a response type, and a display format, and receives,from the user, during a second session between the user and theinformation retrieval system, an expression having a semantic structure.The semantic evaluator evaluates the semantic structure of the receivedexpression. The display component displays a generated response to theuser in a user interface displayed according to the display formatspecified by the definition of the expression type.

In one embodiment, the display component modifies a user interfacedisplayed to the user in the first session, responsive to the displayformat specified in the received definition. In another embodiment, thedisplay component modifies an element in the user interface, responsiveto the display format specified in the received definition. In stillanother embodiment, the definition specifies a display formatidentifying a format for an element of a user interface displaying aresponse of the specified response type to an expression having thedefined expression format. In yet another embodiment, the displaycomponent displays, to the second user, a response to the expression,the response displayed according to the display format specified by thedefinition of the expression type.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe invention will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a networkenvironment comprising client machines in communication with servermachines;

FIG. 1B is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a computer usefulin connection with the methods and systems described herein;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system forprocessing user input;

FIG. 2B is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of an interactionenvironment 110 accessed by a user via a media gateway;

FIG. 2C is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a graphical userinterface for associating an interaction environment with a level ofpermission;

FIGS. 2D and 2E are screen shots depicting user interfaces allowing auser to request information stored in a conversation object;

FIG. 2F is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a number of usersinteracting with a plurality of systems for processing user input;

FIG. 3 through FIG. 27 are screen shots depicting various embodiments ofa system for processing user input; and

FIG. 28A is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps takenin a method for processing user input;

FIG. 28B is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps takento identify an expression type of a user-provided expression;

FIG. 28C is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the combinationsof determinations which the semantic evaluator 134 may make inidentifying an expression type;

FIG. 29A is a block diagram depicting another embodiment of a system forprocessing user input;

FIG. 29B is a block diagram depicting still another embodiment of asystem for processing user input;

FIG. 30 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken toprocess a user-provided resource;

FIG. 31A is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement into which a page can be typed using a markup-language;

FIG. 31B is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacefor specifying user preferences relating to user-provided resources;

FIG. 32 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement including a preview of a display of user-provided input;

FIG. 33 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement for displaying a page generated based on submitted user-input;

FIG. 34 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement for requesting from an interaction environment retrieval ofuser-provided input;

FIG. 35 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken ina method for processing user input;

FIG. 36 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system forhosting a programming environment;

FIGS. 37A and 37B are screen shots depicting embodiments of userinterface elements through which a user may provide program code to aninteraction environment;

FIG. 38 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken ina method for hosting a programming environment;

FIG. 39 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of an informationretrieval system for hosting a programming environment and processinguser input;

FIG. 40 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken ina method for hosting a programming environment and processing user inputwithin an information retrieval system;

FIG. 41 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system forreceiving a user-defined display format and a user-identified computerprogram and displaying a user interface modified responsive to thereceived user input; and

FIG. 42 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken ina method for receiving a user-defined display format and auser-identified computer program and displaying a user interfacemodified responsive to the received user input;

FIG. 43 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a system displayingan acknowledgement message to a user upon addition of user-providedinput to the system;

FIG. 44 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a systemrecognizing a request for information within an expression;

FIG. 45 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a systemrecognizing an implicit command to add an expression to the system;

FIG. 46 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a system retrievinginformation requested in a natural language question;

FIG. 47 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a system forstoring user-provided information;

FIG. 48 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a system forretrieving user-provided information;

FIG. 49 lists one embodiment of pseudo-code for programming languagecode in a system for supporting multiple conversations;

FIG. 50 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system providingfailover functionality by servers processing user input;

FIG. 51 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for accessing,by a server processing user input, a central database;

FIG. 52 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a server farmproviding redundancy and scalability in a system for processing userinput;

FIG. 53 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacefor receiving a user-provided resource;

FIG. 54 is a screen shot depicting another embodiment of a userinterface element including a preview of a display of user-providedinput;

FIG. 55 is a screen shot depicting another embodiment of a userinterface element for displaying a page generated based on submitteduser-input;

FIG. 56 is a screen shot depicting another embodiment of a userinterface element for requesting from an interaction environmentretrieval of user-provided input;

FIG. 57 is a screen shot depicting an embodiment of awhat-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) user interface for receiving auser-provided resource;

FIG. 58 is a screen shot depicting an embodiment of a hypertext markuplanguage (HTML) user interface for receiving a user-provided resource;

FIG. 59 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the steps taken ina method for publishing a page including user-provided resources;

FIG. 60 is a flow diagram depicting one embodiment in the steps taken ina method for transforming a document from one format into a secondformat;

FIG. 61 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacefor receiving user-provided input;

FIG. 62 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacefor providing, by a user, programming code;

FIG. 63 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement into which a user has provided programming code;

FIG. 64 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacedisplaying to a user an acknowledgement message confirming compilationof user-provided programming code;

FIG. 65 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfacedisplaying to a user an acknowledgement message confirming storage ofuser-provided programming code;

FIG. 66 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement displaying to the user an output resulting from execution ofuser-provided programming code;

FIG. 67 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of an applicationincluding a client browser component and a server component;

FIG. 68 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system in whichJavaScript programming code is uploaded to a server;

FIG. 69 is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system fordisplaying a page for a user, the page including output resulting froman execution of user-provided programming code;

FIG. 70 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a page containingHTML and JavaScript;

FIG. 71 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement for providing, by a user, information for storage on a server;

FIG. 72 and FIG. 73 are screen shots depicting embodiments of a pageincluding user-provided information;

FIG. 74 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a page including auser interface element for retrieving user-provided information;

FIG. 75 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a page displaying,to a user, retrieved information;

FIG. 76 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a chat interfacefor processing user input;

FIG. 77 is a screen shot depicting another embodiment of a chatinterface for processing user input in which a user enters a command tostore user input;

FIG. 78 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a modified chatinterface reflecting the storage of user-provided input;

FIG. 79 is a screen shot depicting another embodiment of a modified chatinterface reflecting the storage of user-provided input;

FIG. 80 is a screen shot depicting an embodiment of a user interfaceelement for requesting a display of user-provided programming code;

FIG. 81 is a screen shot depicting an embodiment of a user interfaceelement displaying user-provided programming code;

FIG. 82 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement for modifying displayed user-provided programming code; and

FIG. 83 is a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interfaceelement allowing an administrator to modify programming code.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1A, an embodiment of a network environment isdepicted. In brief overview, the network environment comprises one ormore clients 102 a-102 n (also generally referred to as local machine(s)102, endpoint(s) 102, or client machine(s) 102) in communication withone or more servers 106 a-106 n (also generally referred to as server(s)106, or remote machine(s) 106) via one or more networks 104.

The network 104 can be a local-area network (LAN), such as a companyIntranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), or a wide area network(WAN), such as the Internet or the World Wide Web. In some embodiments,there are multiple networks 104 between the clients 102 and the servers106. In one of these embodiments, a network 104′ may be a privatenetwork and a network 104 may be a public network. In another of theseembodiments, a network 104 may be a private network and a network 104′ apublic network. In still another embodiment, networks 104 and 104′ mayboth be private networks.

The network 104 may be any type and/or form of network and may includeany of the following: a point to point network, a broadcast network, awide area network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, adata communication network, a computer network, an ATM (AsynchronousTransfer Mode) network, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network, aSDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a wireless network and awireline network. In some embodiments, the network 104 may comprise awireless link, such as an infrared channel or satellite band. Thetopology of the network 104 may be a bus, star, or ring networktopology. The network 104 and network topology may be of any suchnetwork or network topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in theart capable of supporting the operations described herein. The networkmay comprise mobile telephone networks utilizing any protocol orprotocols used to communicate among mobile devices, including AMPS,TDMA, CDMA, GSM, GPRS or UMTS. In some embodiments, different types ofdata may be transmitted via different protocols. In other embodiments,the same types of data may be transmitted via different protocols.

In some embodiments, the servers 106 may be geographically dispersedfrom each other or from the clients 102. The servers 106 and the clients102 may be heterogeneous. One or more of the servers 106 or clients 102can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), whileone or more of the other servers 106 or clients 102 can operate onaccording to another type of operating system platform (e.g., Unix orLinux). Data transmission speeds between servers 106 and clients 102 canbe increased if the servers 106 and the clients 102 are connected usinga local-area network (LAN) connection or some form of direct connection.

A server 106 may be referred to as a file server, application server,web server, proxy server, or gateway server. In one embodiment, a server106 may include an Active Directory. The clients 102 may also bereferred to as client nodes, client machines, endpoint nodes, orendpoints. In some embodiments, a client 102 has the capacity tofunction as both a client node seeking access to resources provided by aserver and as a server providing access to hosted resources for otherclients 102 a-102 n.

In some embodiments, a client 102 communicates with a server 106. In oneembodiment, the client 102 communicates directly with one of the servers106. In another embodiment, the client 102 communicates with a server106 through a network 104. Over the network 104, the client 102 can, forexample, request access to resources hosted by the servers 106 a-106 n.In other embodiments, a client 102 a communicates with a client 102 b.In one of these embodiments, the client 102 a communicates directly withthe client 102 b. In another of these embodiments, the client 102 acommunicates with the client 102 b through a network 104.

In one embodiment, the server 106 provides the functionality of a webserver. In another embodiment, the server 106 a receives requests fromthe client 102, forwards the requests to a second server 106 b andresponds to the request by the client 102 with a response to the requestfrom the server 106 b. In some embodiments, the web server 106 comprisesan open-source web server, such as the APACHE servers maintained by theApache Software Foundation of Delaware. In other embodiments, the webserver executes proprietary software, such as the Internet InformationServices (IIS) products provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash., the SUN JAVA web server products provided by Sun Microsystems, ofSanta Clara, Calif., or the BEA WEBLOGIC products provided by BEASystems, of Santa Clara, Calif. In still other embodiments, the webserver 106 provides support for security features such asauthentication, authorization, or secure hyper-text transfer protocol.In yet other embodiments, the web server 106 provides support fordynamic content technologies.

In some embodiments, the server 106 may be running one or moreapplications. In other embodiments, any of the applications may compriseany type of hosted service or products, such as GOTOMEETING provided byCitrix Online Division, Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif., WEBEX provided byWebEx, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., or Microsoft Office LIVE MEETINGprovided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. In still otherembodiments, the server 106 may function as a web or Internet server, ora desktop sharing server, or a collaboration server.

A client 102 may execute, operate or otherwise provide an application,which can be any type and/or form of software, program, or executableinstructions such as any type and/or form of web browser, web-basedclient, client-server application, an ActiveX control, or a Java applet,or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capable ofexecuting on client 102. The application can use any type of protocoland it can be, for example, an HTTP client, an FTP client, an Oscarclient, or a Telnet client. In one embodiment, the application comprisesany type of software related to voice over internet protocol (VoIP)communications, such as a soft IP telephone. In another embodiment, theapplication comprises any application related to real-time datacommunications, such as applications for streaming video and/or audio.

The client 102 and server 106 may be deployed as and/or executed on anytype and form of computing device, such as a computer, network device orappliance capable of communicating on any type and form of network andperforming the operations described herein. FIG. 1B depicts a blockdiagram of a computing device 100 useful for practicing an embodiment ofthe client 102 or a server 106. As shown in FIG. 1B, each computingdevice 100 includes a central processing unit 121, and a main memoryunit 122. As shown in FIG. 1B, a computing device 100 may include avisual display device 124, a keyboard 126 and/or a pointing device 127,such as a mouse.

The central processing unit 121 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 122. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit is provided by amicroprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; those manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of SantaClara, Calif.; the RS/6000 processor, those manufactured byInternational Business Machines of White Plains, N.Y.; or thosemanufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif. Thecomputing device 100 may be based on any of these processors, or anyother processor capable of operating as described herein.

The computing device 100 may include a network interface 118 tointerface to a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) or theInternet through a variety of connections including, but not limited to,standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56kb,X.25), broadband connections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM), wirelessconnections, or some combination of any or all of the above. The networkinterface 118 may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interfacecard, PCMCIA network card, card bus network adapter, wireless networkadapter, USB network adapter, modem or any other device suitable forinterfacing the computing device 100 to any type of network capable ofcommunication and performing the operations described herein.

A wide variety of I/O devices may be present in the computing device100. Input devices include keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs,microphones, and drawing tablets. Output devices include video displays,speakers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and dye-sublimation printers.The I/O devices may be controlled by an I/O controller 123 as shown inFIG. 1B. The I/O controller may control one or more I/O devices such asa keyboard 126 and a pointing device 127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen.Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage and/or aninstallation medium 116 for the computing device 100. In still otherembodiments, the computing device 100 may provide USB connections toreceive handheld USB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line ofdevices manufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. of Los Alamitos, Calif.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may comprise or beconnected to multiple display devices 124 a-124 n, which each may be ofthe same or different type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devicesand/or the I/O controller 123 may comprise any type and/or form ofsuitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software tosupport, enable or provide for the connection and use of multipledisplay devices 124 a-124 n by the computing device 100. For example,the computing device 100 may include any type and/or form of videoadapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate,connect or otherwise use the display devices 124 a-124 n. In oneembodiment, a video adapter may comprise multiple connectors tointerface to multiple display devices 124 a-124 n. In other embodiments,the computing device 100 may include multiple video adapters, with eachvideo adapter connected to one or more of the display devices 124 a-124n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of thecomputing device 100 may be configured for using multiple displays 124a-124 n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices 124a-124 n may be provided by one or more other computing devices, such ascomputing devices 100 a and 100 b connected to the computing device 100,for example, via a network. These embodiments may include any type ofsoftware designed and constructed to use another computer's displaydevice as a second display device 124 a for the computing device 100.One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate thevarious ways and embodiments that a computing device 100 may beconfigured to have multiple display devices 124 a-124 n.

In further embodiments, an I/O device may be a bridge between the systembus 150 and an external communication bus, such as a USB bus, an AppleDesktop Bus, an RS-232 serial connection, a SCSI bus, a FireWire bus, aFireWire 800 bus, an Ethernet bus, an AppleTalk bus, a Gigabit Ethernetbus, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode bus, a HIPPI bus, a Super HIPPI bus,a SerialPlus bus, a SCI/LAMP bus, a FibreChannel bus, or a SerialAttached small computer system interface bus.

A computing device 100 of the sort depicted in FIG. 1B typicallyoperates under the control of operating systems, which controlscheduling of tasks and access to system resources. The computing device100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions ofthe MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of theUnix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS forMacintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-timeoperating system, any open source operating system, any proprietaryoperating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, orany other operating system capable of running on the computing deviceand performing the operations described herein. Typical operatingsystems include: WINDOWS 3.x, WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS 2000,WINDOWS NT 3.51, WINDOWS NT 4.0, WINDOWS CE, and WINDOWS XP, all ofwhich are manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; MACOS, manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif.; OS/2,manufactured by International Business Machines of Armonk, N.Y.; andLinux, a freely-available operating system distributed by Caldera Corp.of Salt Lake City, Utah, or any type and/or form of a Unix operatingsystem, among others.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may have differentprocessors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with thedevice. For example, in one embodiment the computing device 100 is aTreo 180, 270, 600, 650, 680, 700p or 700w smart phone manufactured byPalm, Inc. In some of these embodiments, the Treo smart phone isoperated under the control of the PalmOS operating system and includes astylus input device as well as a five-way navigator device.

In other embodiments the computing device 100 is a mobile device, suchas a JAVA-enabled cellular telephone or personal digital assistant(PDA), such as the i55sr, i58sr, i85s, i88s, i90c, i95c1, or theim11000, all of which are manufactured by Motorola Corp. of Schaumburg,Ill., the 6035 or the 7135, manufactured by Kyocera of Kyoto, Japan, orthe i300 or i330, manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., ofSeoul, Korea.

In still other embodiments, the computing device 100 is a Blackberryhandheld or smart phone, such as the devices manufactured by Research InMotion Limited, including the Blackberry 7100 series, 8700 series, 7700series, 7200 series, the Blackberry 7520, or the Blackberry Pearl 8100.In yet other embodiments, the computing device 100 is a smart phone,Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone, or other handheld mobile device supportingMicrosoft Windows Mobile Software. Moreover, the computing device 100can be any workstation, desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer,server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, any other computer, orother form of computing or telecommunications device that is capable ofcommunication and that has sufficient processor power and memorycapacity to perform the operations described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 2A, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of asystem for processing user input. In brief overview, the system includesa client 102 and a server 106. An interaction environment 110 executesin a virtual machine 108, which executes on the server 106. Theinteraction environment 110 provides an information retrieval component116 and a user interface module 130. The information retrieval component116 is in communication with a search index 118 and a collection ofinformation 120. The user interface module 130 comprises a transceiver132, a semantic evaluator 134, and a response generating component 136.The transceiver 132 receives, via a plurality of media gateways 140, anexpression having a semantic structure. The transceiver 132 is incommunication with an access control module 112 and an accountmanagement component 114. The semantic evaluator 134 identifies anexpression type for the received expression responsive to an evaluationof the semantic structure of the received expression. The responsegenerating component 136 provides a response to the expression based onthe identified expression type. Although FIG. 2A depicts a limitednumber of clients 102 and servers 106, it should be understood that thesystem may provide multiple ones of any or each of those components.

Referring still to FIG. 2A, and in greater detail, the interactionenvironment 110 executes in the virtual machine 108. In one embodiment,the virtual machine executes on a server. In some embodiments, theserver is a server 106 as described above in connection with FIG. 1A andFIG. 1B. In other embodiments, the interaction environment 110 includesan information repository. In one of these embodiments, the interactionenvironment 110 executes a computer program to retrieve information fromthe information repository and provide the retrieved information to auser of the interaction environment 110. In another of theseembodiments, the interaction environment 110 executes a computer programto display retrieved information to a user of the interactionenvironment 110 in a particular format.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 may be referred toas a “GAD”. The user interface module 130, which may be referred to as aconverser, determines whether user input is a query or a new piece ofinformation. In some embodiments a semantic evaluator 134 determineswhether a user-provided expression comprises a new piece of information(referred to here as a statement) or a query, as described in greaterdetail below in connection with FIG. 28B, step 2850. If the input iscategorized as a new piece of information, a module for addinginformation to the interaction environment, such as a responsegeneration component 136, adds the information to a search index 118. Ifthe user input is categorized as a query then the user interface modulemay query a search index 118, directly or via a search component, suchas the information retrieval component 116.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 comprises acollaborative web site. In one of these embodiments, the interactionenvironment 110 comprises a web site implementing server software, suchas Wiki software, to allow users of the interaction environment 110 toview, add, and modify data displayed on the interaction environment 110.In another of these embodiments, the interaction environment 110includes a computer program, such as a CGI script incorporated into aweb site. In other embodiments, a user interacts with the interactionenvironment 110 via electronic mail messages. In still otherembodiments, a user interacts with the interaction environment 110 via ashort message service. In yet other embodiments, a user interacts withthe interaction environment 110 via an instant messaging service.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 provides aplurality of media gateways 140 through which users may access theinteraction environment 110. In one of these embodiments, a first mediagateway 140 a in the plurality of media gateways 140 accepts user inputvia a type of media different from a type of media accepted by a secondmedia gateway 140 b in the plurality of media gateways 140. In anotherof these embodiments, each media gateway in the plurality of mediagateways 140 accepts user input via a different type of media. Forexample, one media gateway 140 a may receive user input via electronicmail messages while another media gateway 140 b may receive user inputvia a web site.

In one embodiment, a media gateway 140 resides on a server, such as aserver 106 as described above in connection with FIGS. 1A and 1B. Inanother embodiment, a media gateway 140 resides on a client 102. Instill another embodiment, a web server 106 includes a media gateway 140.In yet another embodiment, a media gateway 140 is software executing ona client or a server.

In some embodiments, the gateway is provided by a CGI script executingin a web page displayed to the user and forwarding user input to thetransceiver 132. In one embodiment, a user interface element receivinguser input and expressions from a user. In another embodiment, the userinterface module 130 provides the user interface element for receivinguser input. In still another embodiment, the user interface element is atext box into which the user may enter textual expressions. In yetanother embodiment, the user interface element includes a drawing areainto which the user may enter non-textual expressions, such as drawings,mouse or pointer input, or other non-text-based input.

Referring now to FIG. 2B, a screen shot depicts one embodiment of aninteraction environment 110 accessed by a user via a media gateway. Asdepicted by FIG. 2B, the interaction environment 110 provides userinterface elements for receiving user-provided information, such as viathe text element 202, and for displaying, such as via the text element204, the information to the user during the session, the storedinformation associated with the user. The interaction environment 110displays a usemame and a text element. For example, as shown in FIG. 2B,the interaction environment 110 may display a string of text 206including the usemame, such as “Welcome, roche!”, where “roche” is theusername. The interaction environment 110 may be associated with anidentifier and displays this identifier to the user. For example, FIG.2B shows the identifier 208 displaying the string “GAD: roche-gad”,indicating that the current interaction environment has an identifier of“roche-gad”.

In one embodiment, a user enters text into a user interface element,such as a text box, to interact with the interaction environment 110. Asdepicted in FIG. 2B, the user may enter expressions, including commandsto store data in the interaction environment 110. For example, FIG. 2Bshows that the user has typed in the expression “Add statement ‘billextension is 245’” into the user interface element 202. This expressionincludes an explicit command to add a statement to the interactionenvironment 110, in this case a telephone number. In other embodiments,the expression may include a natural language statement. In one of theseembodiments, the expression includes an explicit command and a naturallanguage statement.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 stores informationincluding a user profile and user preferences. In one of theseembodiments, the information in the user profile and the userpreferences is specified by the user, for example, upon creation of theuser's account with the interaction environment.

Referring back to FIG. 2A, the information retrieval component 116provided by the interaction environment 110 is in communication with thesearch index 118 and the collection of information 120. In oneembodiment, the search index 118 is part of the information retrievalcomponent 116. In another embodiment, the information retrievalcomponent 116 accesses a remotely-located search index 118. In stillanother embodiment, the collection of information 120 resides in theinteraction environment 110. In yet another embodiment, the collectionof information 120 resides in a remote location, such as a centraldatabase or remote server 106 b.

The user interface module 130 provided by the interaction environment110 is in communication with the information retrieval component 116. Inone embodiment, the user interface module 130 is referred to as a“converser” and a session in which a user interacts with the userinterface module 130, and the interaction environment 110, is referredto as a conversation. In another embodiment, the user interface module130 accesses the information retrieval component 116 to retrieveinformation from an information repository, or collection of information120, to generate a response to user-input received during aconversation.

The user interface module 130 comprises a transceiver 132, a semanticevaluator 134, and a response generating component 136. The transceiver132 receives, via one of a plurality of media gateways 140, anexpression having a semantic structure. In one embodiment, thetransceiver 132 receives, during a session between a user and theinteraction environment 110, via one of the plurality of media gateways140, from the user, the expression having a semantic structure. Inanother embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives the expression from theuser in an electronic mail message. In still another embodiment, thetransceiver 132 the expression from the user via a text messagingservice. In yet another embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives theexpression from the user via an instant messaging service.

In some embodiments, a client 102 a interacts with a media gateway 140 aduring a first session with the interaction environment 110 andinteracts with a media gateway 140 b during a second session with theinteraction environment 110. In other embodiments, a client 102 ainteracts with a single media gateway 140 a during a session with theinteraction environment 110. In still other embodiments, a client 102 ainteracts with a media gateway 140 a and with a media gateway 140 bduring a first session with the interaction environment 110. In yetother embodiments, a client 102 a interacts with a plurality of mediagateways over a plurality of sessions with an interaction environment110. In some embodiments, the user input provided by the client 102 aand the responses generated by the interaction environment 110 arestored for the duration of the session between the client 102 a and theinteraction environment 110. In other embodiments, the user inputprovided by the client 102 a is stored for the duration of the sessionbetween the client 102 a and the interaction environment 110 for theduration of a session between a second client 102 b and the interactionenvironment 110.

A user may interact with one or more interaction environments 110simultaneously or during different sessions. For example, the user ofthe client 102 a may interact with the interaction environments 110during a first session and may interact with the interactionenvironments 110′ during a second session. In another embodiment, theuser of the client 102 may interact with both an interactionenvironments 110 and with an interaction environment 110′ during a firstsession.

In one embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives the expression having asemantic structure from a media gateway 140 a displaying, to a user, aHypertext Markup Language (HTML) user interface. In another embodiment,the transceiver 132 receives the expression having a semantic structurefrom a media gateway 140 a displaying, to the user, a user interface ona collaborative web site. In still another embodiment, the collaborativeweb site incorporates server software, such as Wiki software, thatenables the user to add or modify information stored in the interactionenvironment 110.

In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 further comprises a receiver.In one of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during a session,via one of a plurality of media gateways 140, from a user, a stringhaving a semantic structure. In another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives, from a user, a plurality of words having a semanticstructure. In still another of these embodiments, the receiver receives,from a user, a command having a semantic structure, such as a command ina programming language. In yet another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives, from a user, a question having a semantic structure.In other embodiments, the expression comprises a word. In still otherembodiments, the expression comprises a natural language phrase.

In one embodiment, an access control module 112 resides in the userinterface module 130. In another embodiment, an account managementcomponent 114 resides in the user interface module 130. In still anotherembodiment, the user interface module 130 is in communication with anaccess control module 112. In still another embodiment, the userinterface module 130 is in communication with an account managementcomponent 114. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 is incommunication with the access control module 112. In other embodiments,the transceiver 132 is in communication with the account managementcomponent 114. In still other embodiments, the account managementcomponent 114, which may include, or be in communication with, an accesscontrol module 112, interacts with an account database 122 to receiveuser-input, such as a query or a statement to generate a query, and anidentifier of the interaction environment 110.

In one embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives an expression having asemantic structure from a user during a session between the user and theinteraction environment 110. In anther embodiment, the transceiver 132receives an identification of the user during a session between the userand the interaction environment 110. In still another embodiment, thetransceiver 132 forwards the identification of the user to an accountmanagement component 114. In some embodiments, the functionality of theaccess control module 112 and of the account management component 114are provided by a single component, an account management and accesscontrol component 124.

In some embodiments, the account management component 114 determineswhether the user is authorized to access the interaction environment110. In one of these embodiments, the account management component 114accesses the access control module 112 to determine whether the user isauthorized to access the interaction environment 110.

In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 resides on the accountmanagement component 114. In one of these embodiments, the transceiver132 receives the user input from the user during the session between theuser and the interaction environment 110. In other embodiments, theaccess control module 112 resides on the account management component114. In one of these embodiments, the access control module 112 receivesthe user input from the user during the session between the user and theinteraction environment 110. In still other embodiments, the accountmanagement component 114 receives the user input from the user duringthe session between the user and the interaction environment 110 andaccesses the access control module 112 to determine whether the user isauthorized to access the interaction environment 110. In one of theseembodiments, the user input includes an identification of the user. Inanother of these embodiments, the user input includes a string, orexpression, provided by the user to the interaction environment 110. Instill another of these embodiments, the user input includes anidentification of the interaction environment 110. In yet otherembodiments, no authorization is required for the user to access theinteraction environment 110.

In one embodiment, a component making an access control decisionaccesses an account database 122 to determine whether the user isauthorized to access the interaction environment 110. In someembodiments, the account database 122 stores data in an ODBC-compliantdatabase. For example, the account database 122 may be provided as anORACLE database, manufactured by Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores,Calif. In other embodiments, the account database 122 can be a MicrosoftACCESS database or a Microsoft SQL server database, manufactured byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

In one embodiment, the access control module 112 accesses the accountdatabase 122 to determine whether the user is authorized to access theinteraction environment 110. In another embodiment, the accountmanagement component 114 accesses the account database 122 to determinewhether the user is authorized to access the interaction environment110. In still another embodiment, a component making an access controldecision accesses an account database 122 to determine whether the useris authorized to modify the interaction environment 110.

In one embodiment where an account management component 114 makes adetermination regarding user authorization, a graphical user interfaceenables a creator of an interaction environment 110 to associate a levelof permission with the interaction environment 110. Referring now toFIG. 2C, a screen shot depicts one embodiment of a graphical userinterface for associating an interaction environment 110 with a level ofpermission. In some embodiments, upon creation of an interactionenvironment 110, at least one level of permission is associated with theinteraction environment 110. As depicted in FIG. 2C, a hyperlink 210provide access to a user interface element 212, which lists one or morelevels of permission 214 available for association with the interactionenvironment 110. In one of these embodiments, the interactionenvironment 110 may be created as a private interaction environment,allowing only the creator of the interaction environment 110 to read ormodify the contents of the interaction environment 110. In another ofthese the embodiments, the interaction environment 110 may be created asa public interaction environment in which members of the public can viewthe contents of the interaction environment 110. In still another ofthese the embodiments, the interaction environment 110 may be created asa public interaction environment in which members of the public can viewand modify the contents of the interaction environment 110. In yetanother of these embodiments, the interaction environment 110 may becreated as a public interaction environment in which members of thepublic can view and modify the contents of the interaction environment110 and can modify the permissions of the interaction environment 110.

Referring back to FIG. 2A, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies anexpression type for the received expression responsive to an evaluationof the semantic structure of the received expression. In one embodiment,the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises means for evaluating alinguistic pattern of the expression. In another embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 further comprises means for evaluating a wordorder of the expression. In some embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134includes an enumeration of predefined expressions. In one of theseembodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 accesses a list of predefinedkey words or sequences of key words. In another of these embodiments,the semantic evaluator 134 identifies a predefined key word, or sequenceof key words, within the user-provided expression as a predefined keyword, or sequence of keywords, included in the enumeration of predefinedexpressions as a command. In still another of these embodiments, a userhas predefined a command in the enumeration of predefined expressions.In yet another of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 executesthe command identified in the expression.

In one of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 forwards thecommand to the response generating component 136 for execution. Inanother of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 forwards thecommand to the information retrieval component 116 for execution. Instill another of these embodiments, the enumeration of predefinedexpressions enumerates commands, including, but not limited to commandsto search for data within the collection of information 120, to storedata in the collection of information 120, to modify data stored in thecollection of information 120, and to enumerate one or more expressionsstored in the collection of information 120.

In some embodiments, the expression includes a command to add data tothe interaction environment 110, the data identified in the expression.In one of these embodiments, the data is data associated with the user,such as contact information, dates for events having significance to theuser, or other personal information. In another of these embodiments,the data is not limited to data associated with, or relevant to theuser, and may include information relevant to other users.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises meansfor identifying the expression as a request for information. In anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises means foridentifying the expression as a request for stored data, such as datastored in the collection of information 120. In some embodiments, thesemantic evaluator 134 queries an information repository for theexpression exactly as provided by the user. In one of these embodiments,the semantic evaluator 134 accesses a search index to determine whetherinformation stored in a collection of information 120 is associated withthe expression. In another of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator134 forwards the expression provided by the user to the informationretrieval component 116 for retrieval of information stored in thecollection of information 120 and associated with the expression.

In some embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises meansfor querying an information repository using a modified version of theexpression provided by the user. In one of these embodiments, thesemantic evaluator 134 converts the expression from one expression typeto a second expression type. For example, and in another of theseembodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 may convert the expression fromone expression type, such a plurality of words, or a string, into asecond expression type, such as a Boolean expression, or an expressionincluding Boolean logic. In another of these embodiments, the semanticevaluator 134 converts the expression from a statement into a question.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the expressionas an implicit request for execution of a command. In anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies a linguistic patternassociated with a command to add data to an information repository, suchas a collection of information 120. In still another embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 identifies a linguistic pattern or word order ofthe expression and determines that the linguistic pattern or word orderof the expression matches a linguistic pattern or word order listed inan enumeration of linguistic patterns or word orders, the enumerationincluding a corresponding enumeration of commands associated with theenumerated linguistic patterns or word orders. In yet anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises means foridentifying the expression as a command to execute a computer program.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 further comprises meansfor identifying the expression as a query. In another embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 includes a question-answering component. In stillanother embodiment, the question-answering component identifies theexpression as an implicit question, a noun phrase that implicitlyrequests information. In still another embodiment, thequestion-answering component identifies the expression as an explicitquestion, such as, for example, an expression including a question word.Methods for identifying an expression as a query and systems forquestion-answering are described in additional detail in U.S. Pat. No.6,859,800, issued Feb. 22, 2005, titled “System for Fulfilling anInformation Need;” U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,627, filed Nov. 26, 2006, titled“Method for Detecting and Fulfilling an Information Need Correspondingto Simple Queries;” U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0259510, publishedNov. 16, 2006, titled “Methods for Detecting and Fulfilling anInformation Need Corresponding to Simple Queries;” U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/845,571, filed Apr. 30, 2001, titled “System forAnswering Natural Language Questions;” U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/004,952, filed Dec. 5, 2001, titled “System for Fulfilling anInformation Need Using Extended Matching Techniques;” U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 60/200,766, filed Apr. 28, 2000, titled “Systemfor Answering Natural Language Questions;” and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/251,608, filed Dec. 5, 2000, titled “System forFulfilling an Information Needing Using an Extended Matching Technique,”each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The response generating component 136 provides a response to theexpression based on the identified expression type. In one embodiment,the response generating component 136 provides a response that answers aquestion identified in the expression, based on an identification of theexpression as a type of question. In another embodiment, the responsegenerating component 135 provides a response to the expression bytransmitting, to the user, information answering an implicit question,based on an identification of the expression as an implicit question.

In one embodiment the response generating component 136 generates aresponse to the expression by executing a command. In anotherembodiment, the response generating component 136 provides a response byadding data to the collection of information 120, based on anidentification of the expression as a type of command, for example, acommand to store data in an information repository. In still anotherembodiment the response generating component 136 provides a response bytransmitting, to the user, data stored in the collection of information120, based on an identification of the expression as a type of command,for example, a command retrieve information from an informationrepository, such as the collection of information 120.

In one embodiment, the response generating component 136 generates aresponse to the expression by transmitting, to the user, data stored inthe collection of information during a previous session between the userand the interaction environment. In another embodiment, the responsegenerating component 136 further comprises means for querying theinformation retrieval component 116, using a modified version of theexpression, to generate a response, responsive to the identifiedexpression type. In still another embodiment, the response generatingcomponent 136 transmits, to the user, a result of querying theinformation retrieval component 116 for information stored in thecollection of information 120, or in other information repositories.

In some embodiments, the response generating component 136 generates aresponse to the expression by executing a computer program. In one ofthese embodiments, the response generating component 136 executes acomputer program written in a programming language. In another of theseembodiments, the response generating component 136 executes a computerprogram written in a scripting language. In still another of theseembodiments, the response generating component 136 requests execution ofthe computer program by a browser application executing on the client102. In yet another of these embodiments, the response generatingcomponent 136 includes output data resulting from an execution of acomputer program in the response to the expression displayed to theuser. In other embodiments, the virtual machine 108 executing on theserver 106 executes the computer program.

In some embodiments, the user interface module 130 determines whether tostore information provided by, or to, a user during a session betweenthe user and the interaction environment 110. In one of theseembodiments, the response generating component 136 determines whether tostore a received expression, a response to the received expression andan identification of the user providing the expression. In another ofthese embodiments, the response generating component 136 determines tostore an entire session—also referred to as a conversation—between theuser and the interaction environment, including a plurality of receivedexpressions, a corresponding plurality of responses, and anidentification of the user. In still another of these embodiments, theresponse generating component 136 makes the determination responsive tothe identified expression type. In yet another of these embodiments, theresponse generating component 136 makes the determination responsive toa type of response generated.

In some embodiments, the received expression and the correspondingresponse to the expression are stored in the search index 118. In otherembodiments, the received expression and the corresponding response tothe expression are stored in the collection of information 120. In stillother embodiments, the received expression and the correspondingresponse to the expression are stored in a database.

Referring now to FIGS. 2D and 2E, two screen shots depict userinterfaces allowing a user to interact with stored conversations. In oneembodiment, a conversation is an object that stores particular elementsof interactions between the user and the interaction environment 110. Inanother embodiment, a conversation may store the last query or queriesentered by a user, or the last answer provided by the GAD, or anythingrelevant to the current interaction. Referring to the object as a“conversation” reflects the fact that this object stores data exchangedbetween the user and the interaction environment and related to theuser's current session. In still another embodiment, data exchangedbetween different users and different gads will be stored distinctconversation objects. In some embodiments, when a user logs out and thenback, the user may lose access to the initial conversation and haveanother conversation object created. In other embodiments, when a userlogs out and then back, the interaction environment has storedinformation relating to a particular USER-GAD pair. FIG. 2D depicts arequest from a user that results in a response containing more answersthan can be displayed, which is indicated to the user by the userinterface element 220 “(more)” displayed by the GAD. FIG. 2E depicts acommand 222 (the text string “more”) received from the user requestingthe additional answers. Because the system stored the last question andstored how many answers it already displayed in the conversation objectfor the session, the system knows what it needs to retrieve to generatethe response including the next set of answers to the previous request.

In one embodiment, the stored expression received from a first user in afirst session and a corresponding response to the stored expression aremade available to the first user in a second session with theinteraction environment 110. In another embodiment, the storedexpression received from a first user in a first session and acorresponding response to the stored expression are made available to asecond user in a session between the second user and the interactionenvironment 110.

In other embodiments, the user interface module 130 determines not tostore a received expression, a corresponding response to the expression,or an identification of the user. For example, the user interface module130 may determine that the received expression is duplicative ofinformation already stored in the collection of information 120. Inanother example, the response generating component 136 may identify thereceived expression as a type of question that a rule or policyindicates the response generating component 136 should not store. Instill another example, the user requests storage of the receivedexpression or the corresponding response. In yet another example, theaccount management component 112 determines that the user is notauthorized to store a received expression or a corresponding response.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a screen shot illustrates one embodiment of anentry screen. As depicted in FIG. 3, the user can either sign up for anew account by selecting hyperlink 302 or login into the system, if theuser already has signed up, by providing a username and password viauser interface elements 304 and 306. If a user clicks on “Sign Up”, thetext displayed by hyperlink 302, the system generates the screen shownin FIG. 4 and allows the entry of a new user name and password into userinterface elements 402, 404, and 406. In FIG. 4 the user chooses as username “er2”, enters a password for his login, and enters his emailaddress (er@mycomp.com) into user interface element 408. After enteringthis information and submitting to the system, a new user account iscreated for the user. Once a user account is created, the user can startadding information to the information repository 120 of the interactionenvironment 110 (i.e., a GAD) which is named, in some embodiments, afterthe user name (in this case the user name is “er2”). As shown in FIG. 5,the interaction environment 110 associated by default with this user iscalled “er2-gad.” Note that in FIG. 5 a query box 502 appears with theinstruction to “Ask a question or enter a fact.” The name of the defaultGAD for the user is listed in the user interface element 504. As shownin FIG. 6, the user may enter user-provided input 602, such as a factfor storage by the system, into the query box 502 depicted in FIG. 5,such as the fact “my phone extension is 223.” The system answers byacknowledging that the statement has been added to “er2-gad”, such as bydisplaying a user interface element 702 confirming the addition bydisplaying a string (“added”) as shown in FIG. 7.

The user can then search the data immediately as shown in FIG. 8. Asshown in FIG. 8, the user enters “phone” into the box and the systemresponds with “my phone extension is 223 (according to the GADer2-gad).” FIG. 8 depicts an embodiment of the system in which thesemantic evaluator 134 determines that the expression entered by theuser is an implicit question for a telephone number and displaysresponse 802 to the user. Using this interaction, the user couldcontinue adding or retrieving information from the same web interface byentering text into a single user interface element displayed by the userinterface module 130. The user may also interact with the interactionenvironment 110 using other media gateways, such as via an interface toan instant messaging service. When the user then clicks on a userinterface element 804 “Account Settings” in the upper right-hand portionof FIG. 8, the screen depicted in FIG. 9A is displayed to the user,including user interface elements 902 a-n that allow the user to specifyuser names within different instant messaging systems, such as AOL, MSNand Yahoo. In some embodiments, in addition to providing instant messageservice user names, the user may specify user identifiers associatedwith a mobile phone service, for example, a cell phone number. FIG. 9Bis a screen shot depicting one embodiment of a user interface providinga user interface element 910 with which the user may specify an cellphone number.

FIG. 10 shows that the user has added AOL and MSN user names. In FIG.10, AOL and MSN user names (erochetg@aol.com and er@msn.com) entered inuser interface elements 902 a and 902 b are user names for user accountsin the AMERICA ONLINE INSTANT MESSENGER and the Microsoft WINDOWS LIVEMESSENGER instant messaging services, which will allow the user tointeract with the interaction environment 110 via an instant messagegateway.

In some embodiments, the GAD relies on the user account with the instantmessaging service for authentication. For example, as depicted in FIG.9B and FIG. 10, the user may provide a user name associated with anaccount provided by the AMERICA ONLINE INSTANT MESSENGER service. Theinstant message service may require the user to provide a username andpassword and may authenticate the user prior to allowing the user tosend or receive instant messages. The GAD system may provide a separateauthentication process, or the GAD system may rely on the instantmessaging service for authentication. In FIG. 9B, the screen shotdepicts an embodiment in which a user may provide user names for one ormore communications services and in which the interaction environment110 uses the provided user names to authenticate the user. If, forexample, a user intends to use the system through cell phone (using SMSfor instance), the user can specify a cell phone number in the userinterface elements provided. When the interaction environment 110receives a message from the user, for example, an SMS request, theinteraction environment 110 verifies that that sender's cell phonenumber corresponds to a number provided by an authorized user. Thismechanism enables seamless user identification for SMS and cell phones.In FIG. 9B, the user has also provided a user name, rr@gmail.com,associated with an external email account. In one embodiment, theinteraction environment 110 authenticates a user logged into the emailaccount with the user name rr@gmail.com by determining that the emailaddress is associated with an authorized user of the interactionenvironment 110. In another embodiment, the interaction environment 110may grant a request for interaction from a user providing the user namerr@aol.com to an AMERICA ONLINE INSTANT MESSENGER system based on adetermination that the user name rr@aol.com is associated with anaccount for an authorized user of the interaction environment. In someembodiments, a user can access the GAD system from mobile phone or via athird-party chat system (such as Microsoft WINDOWS LIVE MESSENGER,Yahoo! MESSENGER, or external JABBER accounts supported by the JabberSoftware Foundation, such as Google TALK). In one of these embodiments,the GAD system will rely on authentication of the user by the mobilephone or third-party chat system. In another of these embodiments, thethird-party system requires the user to provide a login/password toauthenticate to the system and the GAD system relies on thatauthentication in determining whether to authenticate a user requestingaccess to the GAD system. In still another embodiment, the GAD systemaccepts the authentication of the user by the third-party system butalso verifies that the username of the user requesting access isassociated with a username provided in the account settings for anauthorized GAD user.

As depicted in FIG. 10, the user may view and change the informationalcontent of the interaction environment 110. In FIG. 10, under the GADheadline, the names of the GADs associated with the user are listed.Although only one GAD is listed in the user interface element 1002depicted by FIG. 10 (er2-gad), more than one GAD can be associated witha user. A GAD can also exist independently of any user. If one clicks on“er2-gad”/“view” in FIG. 10, the screen shown in FIG. 11 appears thatsummarizes the information about the GAD “er2-gad”. In particular, thescreen in FIG. 11 shows all the statements that have been added to theinformation repository associated with the interaction environment 110.In the embodiment depicted by this screen shot, the user has added onestatement and this statement is displayed to the user in user interfaceelement 1102.

A user can also create a new GAD from the screen of FIG. 10 by clickingon the hyperlink 1004 within the user interface element 1002, labeled“create”, which will generate the screen shown in FIG. 12. The usertypes the desired name for a new GAD into a user interface element 1202and the system creates a new GAD named “company-gad.”

FIG. 13 shows a screen shot depicting an embodiment in which two GADsare available, namely, “er2-gad” and “company-gad”, and both GADs aredisplayed in user interface element 1002. Clicking on the hyperlink 1302labeled “Query” in FIG. 13 results in the screen shot depicted in FIG.14, which has two GADs available in the drop down menu. New statementsmay be added to the “company-gad” by typing statements into the userinterface element 1402 in FIG. 14 when “company-gad” is selected fromuser interface element 1404. For example, from FIG. 14, the user canquery any of the two GADs or add information from any of the two GADs.For example, in FIG. 14, the user adds “John phone extension is 224” tocompany-gad by typing this fact into the text box element 1402 andselecting “company-gad” in the drop down menu element 1404. Similarly,the user can add “Er phone extension is 223” to company-gad, or anyother statement by typing the statement into the user interface element.

Similarly, statements can be retrieved by typing queries into the userinterface element 1402 depicted by FIG. 14 while “company-gad” isselected. For example, when a user types “phone” into the user interfaceelement 1402, as shown in FIG. 15, the system retrieves the twostatements added to the “company-gad” that include the word “phone” anddisplays them to the user via user interface element 1502.

At this point the user “er2” who created both GADs is the only personthat can both access and write new information both to “er2-gad” and“company-gad”. In one embodiment, the system enables the user to specifypermission such as read, write and administration permissions on eachGAD owned by the user.

In one embodiment, the user may click on a user interface element, suchas an “Account Settings” hyperlink 1504, to create an informationrepository that can be accessed by a group of people, such as peoplewithin a family, community, or organization. The screen in FIG. 16appears. In another embodiment, the user may click on a hyperlink 1602(labeled “view” in FIG. 16, located next to the name (“company-gad”) ofthe GAD to be modified), which results in the screen shown in FIG. 17.In still another embodiment, the user may click on hyperlink 1702(labeled “add” and under “Users/Actions” in FIG. 17). In yet anotherembodiment, clicking on hyperlink 1702 results in a display of thescreen shown in FIG. 18 to the user. FIG. 18 depicts a text box 1802 inwhich the user may add a username (for example, “bill”) to the“company-gad”. Clicking on hyperlink 1804 (labeled “Submit”) brings upthe screen of FIG. 19 that shows that user “bill” has read accesspermission to “company-ad” in user interface element 1704. This allowsuser Bill to look for existing information but not add informationhimself. Access rights for user Bill may be changed by clicking on userinterface element 1902 (labeled “read”) and associating a differentlevel of access with the user Bill. As shown in FIG. 20, a userinterface element 2002 allows the user to determine a level of access toassociate with the user Bill, for example, and as shown in FIG. 20,“write” permissions (being able to add statements) or “admin”permissions which would allow Bill to invite other users to join theinteraction environment 110. Referring back to FIG. 19B, a screen shotdepicts another embodiment of a user interface for adding a user. Inthis embodiment, when a user clicks on the hyperlink 1702, the screendepicted in FIG. 19B appears.

Referring now to FIG. 19C, a screen shot depicts a user interfaceelement allowing a user to request access to an interaction environment110. In this embodiment, instead of the creator of the interactionenvironment 110 adding a user, the user requests access. The userselects the hyperlink 1904 and a text box 1906 appears. The user mayenter a username into the text box 1906 and select a hyperlink 1908(labeled “ok” in FIG. 19C) to request access to the interactionenvironment 110. In some embodiments, the creator of the interactionenvironment 110 associates the interaction environment 110 with anaccess control level that authorizes public users to access theinteraction environment 110. In one of these embodiments, the requestinguser enters an identification of the desired interaction environment 110into the user interface. In an embodiment such as that depicted in FIG.19C where Bill requests permission, the account management component oraccess control module may make a determination as to whether to allowBill to access the interaction environment.

The same information repository (GAD) can be accessed through a chat orinstant messaging interface. In the example depicted by FIG. 21, the AOLinstant messaging (AIM) user (identified by a screen name 2102, labeled“erochetg”) interacts with the GAD (shown with a screen name 2104,labeled “tgsplat”) via the GAD chat gateway. The GAD chat gateway showsthe GAD as an AIM user “tgsplat” the AIM user erochetg can chat with it.The GAD gateway 140 makes the connection between the AIM user and thecorresponding GAD user. As described above in connection with FIG. 10,the AIM user erochetg@aol.com is associated with the GAD user name“er2”. Therefore, when AIM user “erochetg” chats with the GAD gateway,the user actually chats with the GAD “er2”. The chat gateway is aconvenient way to make a third-party instant messaging system correspondwith the GAD system. In the case that the instant messaging system andthe GAD system are controlled by a single entity, the CHAT gateway couldbe eliminated by identifying directly the GAD username with the instantmessaging user name, thus eliminating need for a gateway.

Assuming the GAD user and the instant messaging user have been linked(either through a gateway or directly), the user can interact with theGAD within the instant messaging interface. For example, the user canimmediately search for existing information but can also add newinformation as shown in FIG. 22. In FIG. 22, the user “erochetg” hastyped “phone” into a text box 2202 displayed within an instant messagingwindow 2204 and the GAD returned string 2206 (“my phone extension is 223(according to er2-gad)”). This is an example of retrieving informationfrom a GAD through the instant messaging interface. In FIG. 22, the user“erochetg” has also typed “john's birthday is Mar. 3, 2002” into thetext box 2202 and the GAD returned string 2208 (“added”) indicating thatthis fact has been added to the user GAD.

The user can also query the GAD via instant messages as shown in FIG.23. In FIG. 23, the user “erochetg” continues to chat with the GAD andenters string 2302 (“john's birthday”). In response, the GAD returnsstring 2304 (“john's birthday is Mar. 3, 2002 (according to er2-gad)”).

Referring now to FIGS. 24-27, GADs with question-answering functionalityare described. As shown in FIG. 24 it is possible to ask questionsdirectly by entering a string 2402 (such as “what is john's birthday”)and have the GAD answer the question according to the user informationstored in the GAD, in this example by displaying a text element 2404(“Mar. 3, 2002 (according to er2-gad)”). In addition to user-specificinformation, users may also add general information and allow a generalquestion answering system to be used in addition. It is then alsopossible to ask generic questions, such as the question 2502 shown inFIG. 25 (“what is the population of china”). As shown in FIGS. 24 and25, the respective answers are given according to a question-answeringsystem in addition to the information found in the user GAD.

A chat interface may provide similar functionality for asking questionsand receiving answers, as shown in FIG. 26 and FIG. 27. FIG. 26 and FIG.27 show an example of a user requesting an explicit search result. InFIG. 26, expression 2602 includes a keyword “search” followed by searchterms. In this example the terms are “search my phone”. FIG. 27 depictsan embodiment in which the user has asked a both user-specific question2702, for information such as phone numbers and facts associated withthe user, and general questions 2704, for information such as thepopulation in China.

Referring now to FIG. 28A, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken in a method for processing user input. In brief overview,the method includes the step of receiving, during a session, via one ofa plurality of media gateways, from a user, an expression having asemantic structure (step 2802). The semantic structure of the expressionis evaluated (step 2804). An expression type of the expression isidentified, responsive to the evaluation of the semantic structure (step2806). A response to the expression is generated, based on theexpression type (step 2808). A determination is made as to whether tostore the received expression, the response and the identification ofthe user (step 2810).

During a session, an expression having a semantic structure is received,via one of a plurality of media gateways, from a user (step 2802). Inone embodiment, the expression having a semantic structure is received,during a session between the user and the interaction environment 110,via one of the plurality of media gateways 140, from the user. Inanother embodiment, a string having a semantic structure is receivedfrom the user. In still another embodiment, a plurality of words havinga semantic structure is received from the user. In yet anotherembodiment, a question having a semantic structure is received from theuser.

In one embodiment, one of the plurality of media gateways receiving theexpression having the semantic structure forwards the expression to anaccount management component 114. In another embodiment, one of theplurality of media gateways receiving the expression having the semanticstructure forwards the expression to an access control module 112. Instill another embodiment, one of the plurality of media gatewaysreceiving the expression having the semantic structure forwards theexpression to a transceiver 132 on the user interface module 130. Instill another embodiment, one of the plurality of media gatewaysreceiving the expression having the semantic structure forwards theexpression to a semantic evaluator 134 on the user interface module 130.

The semantic structure of the expression is evaluated (step 2804). Inone embodiment, a linguistic pattern of the expression is evaluated. Inanother embodiment, a word order of the expression is evaluated. Instill another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 314 evaluates thesemantic structure of the expression. In some embodiments a semanticevaluator 134 evaluates the expression as described in greater detailbelow in connection with FIG. 28B, step 2850, and with FIG. 28C.

An expression type of the expression is identified, responsive to theevaluation of the semantic structure (step 2806). In one embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 identifies the expression type, responsive to theevaluation of the semantic structure of the expression. In anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the expression as aquery. In still another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134identifies the expression as an implicit question. In yet anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the expression as anexplicit question.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the expressionas a request for information. In another embodiment, the semanticevaluator 134 identifies the expression as a request for stored data.

In some embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies theexpression as a command. In one of these embodiments, the semanticevaluator 134 identifies the expression as a command to store data in aninformation repository, such as the collection of information 120. Inanother of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies theexpression as a command to modify stored data. In still another of theseembodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 queries an enumeration ofpredefined commands for a command associated with the expression.

In other embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies theexpression as a command to execute a computer program. In one of theseembodiments, executing the computer program identifies the expressiontype of the expression. In another of these embodiments, executing thecomputer program identifies a type of response to generate for theexpression. In still another of these embodiments, executing thecomputer program identifies a display format for displaying theexpression, the response, or both. In some embodiments a semanticevaluator 134 evaluates the expression as described in greater detailbelow in connection with FIG. 28B, step 2850, and with FIG. 28C.

In still other embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 queries adatabase to identify the expression type of the expression. In one ofthese embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 forwards the expression tothe information retrieval component 116 for identification of theexpression type.

In yet other embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 queries a databasefor a response to the expression and determines the expression type ofthe expression based on the type of response returned by the database.In one of these embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 queries adatabase with a modified version of the expression to identify theexpression type of the expression. In another of these embodiments,querying a database, such as the search index 118, with the expressionas provided by the user results in an identification of informationstored by the interaction environment 110 and associated with theexpression. In still another of these embodiments, querying a databasewith a modified version of the expression, such as an expressionincluding Boolean logic or an expression converted into a Boolean searchstatement, results in an identification of information stored by theinteraction environment 110 and associated with the expression. In yetanother of these embodiments, if a query of the database for informationassociated either with the expression as provided by the user or with amodified version of the expression returns a response, the semanticevaluator 134 identifies the expression as a query for stored data.

Referring now to FIG. 28B, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken to identify an expression type of a user-providedexpression. User-input is received at step 2850. In some embodiments,the user-input includes an expression having a semantic structure. Inother embodiments, the user-input includes an identifier of a user. Instill other embodiments, the user-input includes an identifier of theinteraction environment 110 to which the user provides input. Adetermination is made as to whether the user-input is a statement atstep 2852. If the user-input is determined to be a statement, thestatement is added to the search index 118 at step 2854. If theuser-input is determined not to be a statement, then a search query isgenerated based on the expression at step 2856 and the search index 118is queried.

At step 2850 an element, such as the transceiver 132, receivesuser-input, such as an expression, and an identification of aninteraction environment 110. At step 2852, a module, such as thesemantic evaluator 134, determines whether a user-provided expressioncomprises a new piece of information (referred to here as a statement)or a query. In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 determineswhether the user input is a statement or a query by determining whetherthe user input starts with an interrogatory pronoun or adjective(including, but not limited to, “who”, “whom”, “which”, “where”, “how”,“to whom”, “to who”, and “in which”). In another embodiment, if theuser-input starts with an interrogatory pronoun or adjective, thesemantic evaluator 134 identifies the user-input as a query. Otherwise,the semantic evaluator 134 further processes the user-input to determinewhether the user-input may be categorized as an information-seekingquery (such as “Bob's phone number” or “Oregon Senators”) as describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/305,221 filed Nov. 26, 2002 andentitled “Method for Detecting and Fulfilling an Information NeedCorresponding to Simple Queries.” If the user-input is categorized as aninformation-seeking query, the techniques described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/845,571 filed Apr. 30, 2001 and entitled “Systemfor Answering Natural Language Questions” are used to determine whetherthe user-input is a statement. The semantic evaluator 134 may furtherprocess the user-input to identify the user-input as a query or astatement as predefined by a user.

Referring now to FIG. 28C, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thecombinations of determinations which the semantic evaluator 134 may makein identifying an expression type. In one embodiment, the semanticevaluator 134 performs one of the combinations of determinationsdepicted in FIG. 28C. In another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134makes other combinations of determinations not depicted in FIG. 28C.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 starts, evaluates theexpression to make determination 1 (does the expression match a formalcommand included in an enumeration of predefined commands?), and ends.In another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 starts, evaluates theexpression to make determination 1 and determination 2 (is theexpression an answer to a question?), and ends. In still anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 starts, evaluates the expressionto make determination 1 and determination 2 and determination 3 (does aquery of the search index 118 or the collection of information 120 usingthe expression exactly as phrased result in an identification of storedinformation associated with the expression?), and ends. In yet anotherembodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 starts, evaluates the expressionto make determinations 1 through 3 and determination 4 (is theexpression an implicit command to add data to the interactionenvironment 110?) and ends.

In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 may select any combinationof the determinations 1-4 to perform to identify the expression type ofthe expression. In another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 isprogrammed to perform a predefined combination of determinations toidentify the expression type of the expression.

Referring back to FIG. 28A, a response to the expression is generated,based on the expression type (step 2808). In one embodiment, theresponse generating component 136 generates the response based on theidentified expression type. In another embodiment, the responsegenerating component 136 receives the identification of the expressiontype from the semantic evaluator 134. In still another embodiment, theresponse generating component 136 receives information to include ingenerating the response from the semantic evaluator 134. For example,the response generating component 136 may receive the results of asearch of the search index 118, or of the collection of information 120,performed by either the semantic evaluator 134 or by the informationretrieval component 116. As another example, the response generationcomponent 136 may receive an instruction from the semantic evaluator 134to execute an identified computer program to generate the response. Inyet another embodiment, the response generating component 136 mayreceive information regarding how to display the response to the user.For example, the response generation component 136 may receive aninstruction to execute an identified computer program to generate adisplay page including the response or to generate a display format forthe response.

In one embodiment, the response generating component 136 receives anidentification of the expression as a question and responds to theexpression by answering the question. In another embodiment, theresponse generating component 136 answers a question by transmitting, tothe user, data stored in a repository, such as the collection ofinformation 120. In still another embodiment, the response generatingcomponent 136 receives an identification of the expression as a commandand responds to the expression by executing the command. For example,the semantic evaluator 134 may identify the expression to the responsegenerating component 136 as a command to store data in the collection ofinformation 120 or as a command to modify data already stored in thecollection of information 120, and the response generating component 136may store or modify the data accordingly.

A determination is made as to whether to store the received expression,the response and the identification of the user (step 2810). In oneembodiment, the user interface module 130 determines whether to storethe received expression, the response, or the identification of theuser. In another embodiment, the response generating component 136determines whether to store the received expression, the response, orthe identification of the user. In still another embodiment, an accesscontrol module 112 determines whether to store the received expression,the response, or the identification of the user.

In one embodiment, a determination is made to store at least one of thereceived expression, the response, and an identification of the user. Inanother embodiment, the access control module 112 determines that theuser is authorized to store data in the interaction environment 110. Instill another embodiment, the user interface module 130 determines thatat least one of the received expression and the response are notduplicative of information already stored in a repository such as thecollection of information 120. In yet another embodiment, the responsegenerating component 136 determines that to respond to the expressionprovided by the user—such as a command to store data—the interactionenvironment 110 should store at least one of the expression and theresponse to the expression. In some embodiments, the at least one of theexpression and the response are stored in a database. In one of theseembodiments, information associated with the at least one of theexpression and the response is stored in the search index 118. Inanother of these embodiments, at least one of the expression and theresponse to the expression are stored in a searchable index andassociated with an identifier of the user.

In some embodiments, access to stored information, such as a storedexpression or a stored response to an expression, are provided to theuser during a second session between the user and the interactionenvironment 110. In other embodiments, access to stored information,such as a stored expression or a stored response to an expression, areprovided to a second user during a session between the second user andthe interaction environment 110.

In some embodiments, a determination is made not to store at least oneof the received expression, the response, or an identification of theuser. In one of these embodiments, a determination is made that theidentified user does not have authorization to store data in theinteraction environment 110. In another of these embodiments, adetermination is made that the received expression or the response areduplicative of information already stored in the interaction environment110.

As described in connection with FIGS. 2-28, a user may provideexpressions to an interaction environment and receive responses to thoseexpressions, including answers to questions or modifications to storeddata. In some embodiments, as described above, the user provides one ormore expressions to the interaction environment via a user interface. Inother embodiments, as described below in connection with FIGS. 29-35, inaddition to providing one or more expressions to the interactionenvironment via a user interface element, the user may upload the one ormore expressions to the interaction environment. Referring now to FIG.29A, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of a system for processinguser input. In brief overview, the system includes a client 102 and aserver 106. An interaction environment 110 executes in a virtual machine108, which executes on the server 106. The interaction environment 110provides an information retrieval component 116 and a user interfacemodule 130. The information retrieval component 116 is in communicationwith a search index 118 and a collection of information 120. The userinterface module 130 comprises a transceiver 132, a semantic evaluator134, a response generating component 136, and a display component 2938.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a first session between a user andthe interaction environment 110, via one of a plurality of mediagateways 140, a resource including a plurality of predefined markers andat least one expression having a semantic structure. The transceiver 132stores the resource. The transceiver 132 receives, during a secondsession between the user and the interaction environment 110, a secondexpression having a semantic structure. The transceiver 132 is incommunication with an access control module 112 and an accountmanagement component 114. The semantic evaluator 134 identifies anexpression type for the received at least one expression responsive toan evaluation of the semantic structure of the received expression andto one of the plurality of predefined markers. The semantic evaluator134 identifies an expression type for the second expression responsiveto an evaluation of the semantic structure of the second expression. Thedisplay component 2938 displays the resource in a viewable displayformat, responsive to a second of the plurality of predefined markers.The response generating component 136 provides a response to the secondexpression based on the identified expression type and to the resourcereceived during the first session.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 provides aplurality of means enabling a user to add information to the interactionenvironment 110. In other embodiments, the interaction environment 110provides a plurality of means enabling a user to modify a display ofinformation stored by the interaction environment 110. In still otherembodiments, the interaction environment 110 provides a user interfacemodule 130 allowing users to upload documents to the interactionenvironment 110. In one of these embodiments, the uploaded documentsinclude expressions having semantic structures. In another of theseembodiments, the uploaded documents include programming code formodifying a display provided to the user by the interaction environment110. In still another of these embodiments, these documents are referredto as resources.

In some embodiments, an uploaded resource is stored for later use by theuser. In one of these embodiments, the user may later modify theuploaded resource. In other embodiments, an uploaded resource isanalyzed by one or more components provided by the interactionenvironment 110. In one of these embodiments, the analysis results inextraction of all the expressions provided by the user in the resource,where the expression has a semantic structure and may compriseindividual statements or pieces of information. In another of theseembodiments, extracted expressions may be stored in the interactionenvironment 110 and used to respond to other expressions.

Referring now to FIG. 29A, and in greater detail, the interactionenvironment 110 executes in the virtual machine 108. The interactionenvironment 110 provides the functionality described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A. As described above in connection with FIG. 2A, theinformation retrieval component 116 provided by the interactionenvironment 110 is in communication with the search index 118 and thecollection of information 120 and provides functionality for searchingfor and retrieving information from the search index 118 and thecollection of information 120. As described above in connection withFIG. 2A, the user interface module 130 provided by the interactionenvironment 110 is in communication with the information retrievalcomponent 116 and provides the user with an interface and functionalityfor interacting with the interaction environment 110, forwardingreceived user-input to the appropriate components within the interactionenvironment 110. As described above in connection with FIG. 2A, the userinterface module 130 comprises a transceiver 132, a semantic evaluator134, a response generating component 136, and a display component 2938.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a first session between a user andthe interaction environment 110, via one of a plurality of mediagateways 140, a resource including a plurality of predefined markers andat least one expression having a semantic structure. In someembodiments, the transceiver 132 further comprises a receiver. In one ofthese embodiments, the receiver receives, during the first sessionbetween the user and the interaction environment 110, via one of theplurality of media gateways 140, from the user, the resource including aplurality of predefined markers identifying an expression type and theresource including the at least one expression having the semanticstructure. In another of these embodiments, the receiver receives,during the first session between the user and the interactionenvironment, via one of the plurality of media gateways, from the user,the resource including a plurality of predefined markers expressed in aprogramming language and the resource including the at least oneexpression having the semantic structure. In still another of theseembodiments, the receiver receives, during the first session between theuser and the interaction environment, via one of the plurality of mediagateways, the resource including a plurality of predefined markersexpressed in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) and the resourceincluding the at least one expression having the semantic structure. Inyet another of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during thefirst session between the user and the interaction environment, via oneof the plurality of media gateways, from the user, the resourceincluding a plurality of predefined markers identifying a display formatand the at least one expression having the semantic structure. In oneembodiment, the transceiver 132 stores the received resource.

The display component 2938 displays the resource in a viewable displayformat, responsive to a second of the plurality of predefined markers.In one embodiment, the display component includes a user interface fordisplaying the resource to the user. In another embodiment, the displaycomponent 2938 is in communication with one of the plurality of mediagateways 140, such as a web browser, chat interface or email service. Instill another embodiment, the display component 2938 modifies a displayprovided by one of the plurality of media gateways 140, responsive toone of the plurality of predefined markers.

In some embodiments, the display component executes programming codeincluded in the resource to display the resource in a viewable displayformat. In one of these embodiments, the predefined markers in theresource comprise programming code. In another of these embodiments, thedisplay component 2938 transforms the resources from a display formatnot comprehensible to the user into a display format comprehensible tothe user. For example, in some of these embodiments, the displaycomponent transforms programming code written in the Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML), which may not be comprehensible to all users, intoprogramming code written in Hypertext Markup Language, which a clientbrowser may execute and display in a viewable, comprehensible form tothe user.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a second session between the userand the interaction environment 110, a second expression having asemantic structure. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 receivesthe second expression as described above in connection with FIG. 2A. Insome embodiments, the transceiver 132 is in communication with an accesscontrol module 112 and an account management component 114. In oneembodiment, an access control module 112 resides in the user interfacemodule 130. In another embodiment, an account management component 114resides in the user interface module 130. The access control module 112and the account management component 114 may provide the functionalitydescribed above in connection with FIG. 2A.

The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for thereceived at least one expression in the resource, responsive to anevaluation of the semantic structure of the received expression and toone of the plurality of predefined markers. The semantic structure maybe evaluated and the expression type identified as described above inconnection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C.

The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for the secondexpression responsive to an evaluation of the semantic structure of thesecond expression. In some embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134identifies the expression type of the second expression as describedabove in connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C.

The response generating component 136 provides a response to the secondexpression based on the identified expression type and to the resourcereceived during the first session. In some embodiments, the responsegenerating component 136 generates the response as described above inconnection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C. In other embodiments, thegenerated response includes information added to the collection ofinformation 120 by the user in the resource.

Referring now to FIG. 30, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken to process a user-provided resource. In brief overview, astructured document received at step 3010 may include statements thatare marked at the beginning and end of the statements. In someembodiments, there are three things to mark: statements, questions andanswers, and attribute-values. Statements may include factualinformation such as “my extension is 223.” At step 3012, the page isbroken into a list of statements, as part of the process of transformingthe document into viewable form (step 3018). The statements are checkedto see if they are duplicative of statements already in a database andif not, at step 3014, the statement is added to search index block 118.

The structured document received at step 3010 may be a specific form ofXML, which is not a visual language. The structural information inreceived at step 3010 is transformed into viewable form in a block 3018into an HTML form in step 3020. HTML is a visual language. Visualinformation is separated from content.

Referring now to FIG. 30, and in greater detail, a structured documentreceived at step 3010 includes predefined markers enabling theidentification of individual statements. A page is broken into a list ofstatements at step 3012. At step 3020, the document is published inviewable form and a custom structured format is transformed into apredefined structured format by an XSLT transform operation. When a pageis to be published, it is checked to see if statements are already inthe database and only new information is added. In some embodiments, theuser interface module 130 performs these steps. This operation iscarried out in blocks 3022, 3024, and 3026. In some embodiments,statements are stored in a storage medium 3022. In one of theseembodiments, the storage medium 3022 is a database. In another of theseembodiments, the storage medium 3022 is the collection of information120. In still another of these embodiments, a numeric value based on,and associated with, a statement may be stored in the storage medium3022. A list of statements to add or to delete is generated at step3024; and change index block 3026 changes the search index 118 toinclude a reference to statements added or deleted at step 3024. In someembodiments, a custom page document identified at step 3028 includes acustom structured format, typically an HTML format. In one of theseembodiments, the custom structured format is provided to the system asthe structured document at step 3010. In other embodiments, the custompage document is displayed to a user and includes an interface forreceiving the structured document at step 3010.

Referring now to FIG. 31A, a screen shot depicts one embodiment of auser interface element, in this case a field 3102, into which a page canbe typed using a markup-language. In this example, the page contains atitle 3104 (“Contacts”), a string 3106 (the introduction sentence, “Hereare a few useful phone extensions”) as well as two statements 3108 and3110 (“John extension is 224” and “Marc extension is 225”,respectively).

Referring now to FIG. 31B, a screen shot depicts one embodiment of auser interface for specifying a language in which the predeterminedmarkers are written. In this embodiment, the user has the option ofchanging the format from HTML to XML for this interaction environment.FIG. 31B depicts a user interface element 3120, in this example, apull-down menu, from which the user may select a format. In otherembodiments, the user may specify other markup languages or scriptinglanguages in which the user has written the predetermined markers.

The user may access functionality for previewing a page by clicking on auser interface element 3112 (in this example the “preview” button)depicted by FIG. 31A. The previewing functionality displays the screenshown in FIG. 32, in which the system uses the predefined markers todisplay the user-input in user interface element 3202. In the embodimentdepicted by FIG. 32, the user interface element 3202 is a plurality ofstrings, each string having a display format specified by a predefinedmarker. In other embodiments, the user interface element 3202 maydisplay different components, responsive to the predefined marker. Ifthe text is satisfactory, the user then clicks on the “Submit” button3204 and the page will then be available as shown in user interfaceelement 3302 depicted in FIG. 33.

At this point, any statement is accessible in the same way it would havebeen if it had been entered through a chat interface as described above.For instance, in an embodiment depicted in the screen shot shown in FIG.34, the information associated to each statement can be retrieved by theuser. FIG. 34 depicts a screen shot showing both a query box (such asquery box 502 described above) and the user interface element 3302. Theuser has entered a question 3402 and received an answer 3406, whichincludes information provided by a user and displayed in the userinterface element 3302.

Referring now to FIG. 35, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken in a method for processing user input. In brief overview, aresource is received from a user, during a first session between theuser and an interaction environment, via one of a plurality of mediagateways, the resource including a plurality of predefined markers andat least one expression having a semantic structure (step 3502). Theresource is stored (step 3504). The semantic structure of the at leastone expression in the resource is evaluated (step 3506). An expressiontype is identified, responsive to the evaluation of the semanticstructure and to one of the plurality of predefined markers (step 3508).A determination is made as to whether to store the at least one of anidentification of the user and the at least one expression (step 3510).The resource is displayed in a viewable display format, responsive to asecond of the plurality of predefined markers (step 3512). During asecond session, a second expression having a semantic structure isreceived from the user via one of a plurality of media gateways (step3514). The semantic structure of the second expression is evaluated(step 3516). An expression type of the second expression is identifiedresponsive to the evaluation of the semantic structure (step 3518). Aresponse to the expression is generated based on the expression type(step 3520).

Referring now to FIG. 35, and in greater detail, a resource is receivedfrom a user, during a first session between the user and an interactionenvironment, via one of a plurality of media gateways, the resourceincluding a plurality of predefined markers and at least one expressionhaving a semantic structure (step 3502). In some embodiments, thetransceiver 132 includes a receiver receiving the resource. In one ofthese embodiments, the receiver receives, during the first sessionbetween the user and the interaction environment, via one of theplurality of media gateways, from the user, the resource including aplurality of predefined markers identifying an expression type and theresource including the at least one expression having the semanticstructure. In another of these embodiments, the receiver receives duringthe first session between the user and the interaction environment, viaone of the plurality of media gateways, from the user, the resourceincluding a plurality of predefined markers expressed in a programminglanguage and the resource including the at least one expression havingthe semantic structure. In still another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives during the first session between the user and theinteraction environment, via one of the plurality of media gateways,from the user, the resource including a plurality of predefined markersexpressed in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) and the resourceincluding the at least one expression having the semantic structure. Inyet another of these embodiments, the receiver receives during the firstsession between the user and the interaction environment, via one of theplurality of media gateways, from the user, the resource including aplurality of predefined markers identifying a display format and the atleast one expression having the semantic structure.

The resource is stored (step 3504). The semantic structure of the atleast one expression in the resource is evaluated (step 3506). Anexpression type is identified, responsive to the evaluation of thesemantic structure and to one of the plurality of predefined markers(step 3508). A determination is made as to whether to store the at leastone of an identification of the user and the at least one expression(step 3510). The semantic structure may be evaluated and the expressiontype identified as described above in connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS.28A-C. In some embodiments, one of the plurality of predefined markersidentifies the at least one expression in the resource as an expressionto be added to the collection of information 120 and to the search index118.

The resource is displayed in a viewable display format, responsive to asecond of the plurality of predefined markers (step 3512). In oneembodiment, the display component 2938 includes a user interface fordisplaying the resource to the user in a viewable display format. Insome embodiments, the display component 2938 executes programming codeincluded in the resource to display the resource in a viewable displayformat. In one of these embodiments, some of the predefined markers inthe resource comprise programming code. In another of these embodiments,the display component 2938 transforms the resources from a displayformat not comprehensible to the user into a display formatcomprehensible to the user. For example, in some of these embodiments,the display component 2938 transforms programming code written in theExtensible Markup Language (XML), which may not be comprehensible to allusers, into programming code written in Hypertext Markup Language, whicha client browser may execute and display in a viewable, comprehensibleform to the user.

During a second session, a second expression having a semantic structureis received from the user via one of a plurality of media gateways (step3514). In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 receives the secondexpression as described above in connection with FIG. 2A. In oneembodiment, the second expression is received during a session between asecond user and the interaction environment 110. In another embodiment,the second expression is received during the first session between theuser and the interaction environment 110.

The semantic structure of a second expression is evaluated (step 3516).The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for the secondexpression, responsive to an evaluation of the semantic structure of thesecond expression and to one of the plurality of predefined markers. Thesemantic structure may be evaluated and the expression type identifiedas described above in connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-28C.

An expression type of the second expression is identified responsive tothe evaluation of the semantic structure (step 3518). In someembodiments, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the expression typeof the second expression as described above in connection with FIG. 2Aand FIGS. 28A-C. A response to the second expression is generated basedon the expression type (step 3520). The response generating component136 may generate the response as described above in connection with FIG.2A and FIGS. 28A-C. In some embodiments, the generated response includesthe at least one expression received in the resource during the firstsession between the user and the interaction environment 110. In one ofthese embodiments, the at least one expression identified in theresource and added to the collection of information 120 from theresource is used in the same manner as if the user had provided the atleast one expression directly to the interaction environment 110, asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 2A.

In the embodiments described above in connection with FIGS. 2A and28A-C, when a user provides an expression to an interaction environment110 via a user interface module 130, the interaction environment 110analyzes the expression and generates a response. In the embodimentsdescribed below, in connection with FIGS. 36-38, the user may providethe interaction environment 110 with a definition specifying a type ofresponse to generate for a particular type of expression, the expressiontype identified by determining that the expression has a semanticstructure matching an expression format specified by the definition.Additionally, in some embodiments, as described below in connection withFIGS. 36-38, the user may provide executable code to the interactionenvironment, modifying the behavior of the interaction environment.

Referring now to FIG. 36, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of asystem for hosting a programming environment. In brief overview, thesystem includes a client 102 and a server 106. An interactionenvironment 110 executes in a virtual machine 108, which executes on theserver 106. The interaction environment 110 provides an informationretrieval component 116 and a user interface module 130. The informationretrieval component 116 is in communication with a search index 118 anda collection of information 120. The user interface module 130 comprisesa transceiver 132, a semantic evaluator 134, a response generatingcomponent 136, and a display component 2938.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a first session between a user andthe interaction environment 110, via one of a plurality of mediagateways 140, a definition of an expression type, the definitionspecifying an expression format and a response type. The transceiver 132stores the definition of the expression type. The transceiver 132receives, during a second session between a second user and theinteraction environment 110, an expression having a semantic structure.The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression format of thereceived expression as the expression format specified by the definitionof the expression type, responsive to an evaluation of the semanticstructure of the expression. The response generating component 136provides a response to the expression based on the identified expressionformat and responsive to an execution of a computer program associatedwith the response type specified by the definition of the expressiontype.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment 110 provides aplurality of means enabling a user to add information to the interactionenvironment 110. In other embodiments, the interaction environment 110provides a user interface allowing users to upload documents to theinteraction environment 110. In one of these embodiments, the uploadeddocuments include programming code for modifying a display provided tothe user by the interaction environment 110. In another of theseembodiments, the uploaded documents include programming code forexecution by the interaction environment 110 upon evaluation of anexpression having a specified semantic structure.

Referring now to FIG. 36, and in greater detail, the interactionenvironment 110 executes in the virtual machine 108. The interactionenvironment 110 provides the functionality described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A. In one embodiment, the interaction environment 110provides a user interface element. In another embodiment, theinteraction environment 110 stores information provided by the user viathe user interface element. In still another embodiment, the interactionenvironment 110 stores a virtual machine state of a program executing inthe virtual machine 108. In yet another embodiment, a program written ina programming language embedded within the user interaction module 130executes in the virtual machine 108.

In some embodiments, when a user interacts with the interactionenvironment 110, the interaction environment 110 stores the informationprovided by the user and the information provided to the user inresponses generated by the user interface module 130. In one of theseembodiments, a session key is associated with a user and withinformation exchanged between the user and the interaction environment110. In another of these embodiments, the information associated withthe session key is referred to as a conversation.

As described above in connection with FIG. 2A, the information retrievalcomponent 116 provided by the interaction environment 110 is incommunication with the search index 118 and the collection ofinformation 120 and provides functionality for searching for andretrieving information from the search index 118 and the collection ofinformation 120. As described above in connection with FIG. 2A, the userinterface module 130 provided by the interaction environment 110 is incommunication with the information retrieval component 116 and providesthe user with an interface and functionality for interacting with theinteraction environment 110, forwarding received user-input to theappropriate components within the interaction environment 110. Asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 2A, the user interface module130 comprises a transceiver 132, a semantic evaluator 134, a responsegenerating component 136, and a display component 2938.

Referring now to FIG. 37A, a screen shot depicts one embodiment of auser interface element through which a user may provide the definitionof the element type. In one embodiment, a user interface element 3702 isdisplayed in a web page provided by the user interface module 130. InFIG. 37A, the user interface element 3702 is a text box. In oneembodiment, the user enters programming code into the user interfaceelement 3702. FIG. 37A depicts programming code including an expressiontype 3704 (“foo”), an expression format 3706 (specifying a semanticstructure including a noun phrase followed by the word “and” followed bya pronoun), and a response type 3708 (“trigger foo”), which, in thisexample, includes an identification of a command to display a string oftext to the user are defined by providing code written in a programminglanguage to the interaction environment via the user interface element.

Referring now to FIG. 37B, a screen shot depicts another embodiment of auser interface element through which a user may provide the definitionof the element type. In one embodiment, the user interface elementincludes a user interface element 202 used by the user for both queryingthe interaction environment 110 and for adding expressions to theinteraction environment 110, as described above in connection with FIG.2A. In another embodiment, the user enters the definition of theexpression type into the user interface element 202.

In one embodiment, the user provides the interaction environment 110with a command to enter a programming mode by typing the command intothe user interface element. In another embodiment, the user then entersprogramming code into the interface element 110, via the user interfaceelement. For example, a user may enter an expression (such as “switch toprogramming”) that is evaluated by the semantic evaluator, identified asa command, and the response generated is to begin storing user-input asan application for later execution. In the following example, the userdefined an expression type in which an expression format specifies thatthat the expression has a semantic structure including a noun, the word“and”, and a demonstrative pronoun (“a test and this”, “a cat and that”)and in which a response type specifies responding to expressions of thedefined expression type by displaying a welcome message to the user:

pred foo (nparg,proarg); foo.sequence(“_nparg{ NP } and _proarg{ PRONOUN}”); trigger foo{  print(“Welcome to TT-GAD.”);  return 1; }

In this example, the user may enter the expression “switch tt” into thequery box and submit the expression, and then enter the code, line byline, into the query box, followed by a command to exit the programmingmode. Then the user may enter the string “a test and this” into thequery box to see the output of the program. In one embodiment, theinstructions are illustrated as follows:

switch tt tt code line 1 tt code line 2 ... tt code line n exit this isa cat

The first two lines of the sample application declare a natural languagepredicate “foo” and its corresponding sequence. The predicate “foo” isdefined using a “pred” keyword. In one embodiment, the expression formatis referred to as a sequence of a predicate. In another embodiment, thesequence is a rule defining the natural language statements or phrasesto be matched with the contents of all or part of an expression. In thisexample, the predicate “foo” matches statements composed of a pronoun, aword “is” and a noun phrase. The remaining code shown in this exampledefines a trigger named “foo”. In one embodiment, a trigger is definedusing the same name as the corresponding predicate, and the names createa linkage between a predicate and the action to be performed when it ismatched. In this program, the trigger prints out a welcome message uponidentification of a semantic structure of an expression as a pronoun, aword “is” and a noun phrase.

In one embodiment, a trigger is any expression associated with a commandto execute user-provided program code. For example, a user may enter anexpression that the semantic evaluator 134 identifies a part of theexpression (such as the sequence of a pronoun, word “is”, and a nounphrase described above) associated with a command to execute a program.In another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 makes thisidentification while identifying an expression type of an expression, asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 28B (step 2850).

Referring back to FIG. 36, the transceiver 132 receives, during a firstsession between a user and the interaction environment 110, via one of aplurality of media gateways 140, a definition of an expression type, thedefinition specifying an expression format and a response type. In oneembodiment, the transceiver 132 receives the definition via a userinterface element displayed to the user in the user interface module130. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 further comprises areceiver. In one of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during thefirst session between the user and the interaction environment 110, viaone of the plurality of media gateways 140, from the user, thedefinition of the expression type, the expression type identifying anexpression as a command to execute a computer program. In another ofthese embodiments, the receiver receives, during the first sessionbetween the user and the interaction environment, via one of theplurality of media gateways, from the user, the definition of theexpression type, the definition specifying an expression formatidentifying a linguistic pattern of an expression having the expressiontype. In still another of these embodiments, the receiver receives,during the first session between the user and the interactionenvironment, via one of the plurality of media gateways, the definitionof the expression type, the definition specifying an expression formatidentifying a word order of an expression having the expression type. Inyet another of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during thefirst session between the user and the interaction environment, via oneof the plurality of media gateways, from the user, the definition of theexpression type, the definition specifying a response type identifying acomputer program for execution.

In some embodiments, the expression type categorizes an expression. Inone of these embodiments, the expression type may identify an action tobe taken by the interaction environment 110 upon evaluation of asemantic structure of an expression. In another of these embodiments,the expression type may identify an action to be taken by theinteraction environment 110 upon identifying an expression format of asemantic structure as an expression format specified in the definitionof the expression type. For example, if a semantic structure of anexpression matches an expression format specified in a definition, thesemantic evaluator 134 evaluating the expression may identify anexpression type of the expression as the defined expression type. Inother embodiments, the definition specifies a type of response togenerate upon determination, by a semantic evaluator 134, that asemantic structure of an expression has an expression format asspecified by a definition of an expression type which also specifies thetype of response. In one of these embodiments, a type of responsecomprises a command to store the expression. In another of theseembodiments, a type of response comprises a command to retrieveinformation from the collection of information 120 and include theretrieved information in a response to the expression. In still anotherof these embodiments, a type of response comprises a command to executea computer program identified by a user. In yet another of theseembodiments, a type of responses comprises a command to generate aresponse including output from an execution of a computer programidentified by a user.

In one embodiment, the transceiver 132 stores the received definition.In another embodiment, the transceiver 132 transmits the definition tothe information retrieval component 116 for storage. In still anotherembodiment, the transceiver 132 stores the definition in the interactionenvironment 110.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a second session between the userand the interaction environment 110, a second expression having asemantic structure. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 receivesthe second expression as described above in connection with FIG. 2A. Thesemantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for the received atleast one expression in the resource, responsive to an evaluation of thesemantic structure of the received expression and to one of theplurality of predefined markers. The semantic structure may be evaluatedand the expression type identified as described above in connection withFIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C. In one embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134identifies the semantic structure as the structure defined by theexpression format specified in the definition of the expression type.

The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for the secondexpression responsive to an evaluation of the semantic structure of thesecond expression. In some embodiments, the semantic evaluator 134identifies the expression type of the second expression as describedabove in connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C. In one embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 determines that the semantic structure of theexpression matches an expression format specified in a definition of anexpression type and identifies the expression type of the expression asthe defined expression type.

The response generating component 136 provides a response to the secondexpression based on the identified expression type and responsive to anexecution of a computer program associated with the response typespecified by the definition of the expression type. In one embodiment,the response generating component 136 provides a response by executing acomputer program. In another embodiment, the response generatingcomponent 136 generates a response by executing a command. For example,the response type may specify that the response should comprise amodification of information stored in the collection of information 120.In another example, the response type may specify that the responseshould comprise the results of a query sent to the information retrievalcomponent 116.

Referring now to FIG. 38, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken in a method for hosting a programming environment. In briefoverview, during a first session between a user and an interactionenvironment, a definition of an expression type is received, via one ofa plurality of media gateways, the definition specifying an expressionformat and a response type (step 3802). The definition of the expressiontype is stored (step 3804). During a second session between a seconduser and the interaction environment, an expression having a semanticstructure is received from the second user, via one of a plurality ofmedia gateways (step 3806). The semantic structure of the expression isevaluated (step 3808). An expression format of the received expressionis identified as the expression format specified by the definition ofthe expression type, responsive to the evaluation of the semanticstructure (step 3810). A response to the expression is generated basedon the identified expression format and responsive to an execution of acomputer program associated with the response type specified by thedefinition of the expression type (step 3812).

Referring now to FIG. 38, and in greater detail, during a first sessionbetween a user and an interaction environment, a definition of anexpression type is received, via one of a plurality of media gateways,the definition specifying an expression format and a response type (step3802). In some embodiments, the received definition specifies anexpression format and a response type, the response type associated witha computer program provided by the user. In one of these embodiments,the response type includes an identification of a computer program forexecution by the interaction environment 110 in generating a response toan expression identified as having the specified expression format. Inanother of these embodiments, the user provides code comprising thecomputer program in the definition of the expression type.

In other embodiments, the received definition specifies an expressionformat and a response type, the response type associated with a computerprogram transmitted, by the user, to the interaction environment 110. Inone of these embodiments, the user may upload a copy of the computerprogram to the interaction environment 110. In another of theseembodiments, the user may upload the computer program to the interactionenvironment 110 in a transmission separate from the transmission of thedefinition of the expression type. For example, the user may havetransmitted the computer program to the interaction environment 110 in aprevious session with the interaction environment 110.

In still other embodiments, the received definition specifies anexpression format and a response type, the response type associated witha computer program identified by the user. In one of these embodiments,the user includes an identification of the computer program in thespecification of the response type. In another of these embodiments, theuser provides the identification of the computer program but does notprovide a copy of the computer program to the interaction environment110. For example, the user may provide an identification of a computerprogram previously provided by the user to the interaction environment110. In another example, the user may provide an identification of acomputer program provided by a second user to the interactionenvironment 110.

In one embodiment, the received definition specifies an expression typeidentifying an expression having the specified expression format as acommand to execute a computer program. In another embodiment, thereceived definition specifies an expression type identifying anexpression having the specified expression format as a command to storethe expression in the interaction environment 110. In still anotherembodiment, the received definition specifies an expression typeidentifying an expression having the specified expression format as acommand to retrieve information from the interaction environment 110. Inyet another embodiment, the received definition specifies an expressiontype identifying an expression having the specified expression format asa command to modify a display provided to the user by the user interfacemodule 130.

In one embodiment, the received definition specifies an expressionformat identifying a semantic structure of an expression. In anotherembodiment, the received definition specifies an expression formatidentifying a word order of an expression. In still another embodiment,the received definition specifies an expression format identifying alinguistic pattern of an expression. In some embodiments, if thesemantic evaluator 130 evaluates a semantic structure of an expressionand determines that the structure has the specified expression format,the semantic evaluator 130 identifies the expression type of theexpression as the defined expression type.

The definition of the expression type is stored (step 3804). In oneembodiment, the interaction environment 110 stores the definition of theexpression type. In another embodiment, the search index 118 stores thedefinition of the expression type. In some embodiments, a determinationis made not to store the definition of the expression type, responsiveto an access control decision. In one of these embodiments, the accountmanagement component 114 determines not to store the definition of theexpression type. In another of these embodiments, the account managementcomponent 114 accesses the access control module 112 to determine thatthe user is not authorized to store a definition of an expression type.

During a second session between a second user and the interactionenvironment, an expression having a semantic structure is received fromthe second user, via one of a plurality of media gateways (step 3806).In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 receives the expression havingthe semantic structure, from the second user, during the second sessionbetween the second user and the interaction environment 110 as describedabove in connection with FIG. 2A. The semantic structure of theexpression is evaluated (step 3808). The semantic structure may beevaluated as described above in connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C.

An expression format of the received expression is identified as theexpression format specified by the definition of the expression type,responsive to the evaluation of the semantic structure (step 3810). Inone embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the semanticstructure as the structure defined by the expression format specified inthe definition of the expression type. In another embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 determines that a word order or linguisticpattern of the expression matches the expression format specified in thedefinition of the expression type.

A response to the expression is generated based on the identifiedexpression format and responsive to an execution of a computer programassociated with the response type specified by the definition of theexpression type (step 3812). In one embodiment, the response generatingcomponent 136 provides a response by executing a computer program. Inanother embodiment, the response generating component 136 generates aresponse by executing a command. For example, the response type mayspecify that the response should comprise a modification of informationstored in the collection of information 120. In another example, theresponse type may specify that the response should comprise the resultsof a query sent to the information retrieval component 116. In stillanother example, the response type may specify that the response shouldinclude the output of executing a computer program.

Referring now to FIG. 39, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of aninformation retrieval system for hosting a programming environment andprocessing user input. In brief overview, the system includes a client102 and a server 106. The interaction environment 110 provides aninformation retrieval component 116 and a user interface module 130. Theinformation retrieval component 116 is in communication with a searchindex 118 and a collection of information 120. The user interface module130 comprises a transceiver 132, a semantic evaluator 134, and a displaycomponent 3938.

The transceiver 132 receives, from a user, during a first sessionbetween a user and the information retrieval system 110, a definition ofan expression type, the definition specifying an expression format, aresponse type, and a display format. The transceiver 132 receives,during a second session between the user and the information retrievalsystem 110, an expression having a semantic structure. The semanticevaluator 134 evaluates the semantic structure of the receivedexpression. The display component 3938 displays, to the user, agenerated response in a user interface displayed according to thedisplay format specified by the definition of the expression type.

In some embodiments, the information retrieval system 110 provides auser interface allowing users to upload documents to the interactionenvironment 110. In one of these embodiments, the uploaded documentsinclude programming code for modifying a display provided to the user bythe interaction environment 110. In another of these embodiments, theuploaded documents include programming code for execution by theinteraction environment 110 upon evaluation of an expression having aspecified semantic structure.

Referring now to FIG. 39, and in greater detail, the informationretrieval system 110 receives expressions and programming code from auser of the client 102. In one embodiment, the information retrievalsystem 110 comprises an interaction environment as described above inconnection with FIG. 36. In another embodiment, the informationretrieval system 110 comprises an Internet search engine. In stillanother embodiment, the information retrieval system 110 providesfunctionality, including a user interface and a search engine, forsearching large databases, which may be accessible via a network 140.

The information retrieval component 116 provided by the interactionenvironment 110 and in communication with the search index 118 and thecollection of information 120 provides functionality for searching forand retrieving information from the search index 118 and the collectionof information 120. In some embodiments, the information retrievalcomponent 116 provides the functionality described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A.

The user interface module 130 provided by the information retrievalsystem 110 is in communication with the information retrieval component116 and provides the user with an interface and functionality forinteracting with the information retrieval system 110, forwardingreceived user-input to the appropriate components within the informationretrieval system 110. The user interface module 130 comprises atransceiver 132, a semantic evaluator 134, and a display component 3938.In some embodiments, the user interface module 130 provides thefunctionality described above in connection with FIG. 36.

The transceiver 132 receives, from a user, during a first sessionbetween the user and the information retrieval system 110, a definitionof an expression type, the definition specifying an expression format, aresponse type, and a display format. In one embodiment, the transceiver132 receives the definition via one of a plurality of media gateways. Inanother embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives the definition via auser interface element provided to the client 102 by the user interfacemodule 130. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 further comprises areceiver. In one of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during thefirst session between the user and the information retrieval system 110,from the user, the definition of the expression type, the expressiontype identifying an expression as a command to execute a computerprogram. In another of these embodiments, the receiver receives, duringthe first session between the user and the information retrieval system110, from the user, the definition of the expression type, thedefinition specifying a display format identifying a format for anelement of a user interface displaying a response of the specifiedresponse type to an expression having the defined expression format. Instill another of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during thefirst session between the user and the interaction environment, thedefinition of the expression type, the definition specifying a displayformat modifying an element of a user interface displaying a response tothe expression.

In one embodiment, the transceiver 132 stores the received definition.In another embodiment, the transceiver 132 transmits the definition tothe information retrieval component 116 for storage.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a second session between the userand the information retrieval system 110, an expression having asemantic structure. In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 receivesthe expression as described above in connection with FIG. 2A.

The semantic evaluator 134 identifies an expression type for thereceived expression in the resource, responsive to an evaluation of thesemantic structure of the received expression. The semantic structuremay be evaluated and the expression type identified as described abovein connection with FIG. 2A and FIGS. 28A-C. In one embodiment, thesemantic evaluator 134 determines that the semantic structure of theexpression matches an expression format specified in a definition of anexpression type and identifies the expression type of the expression asthe defined expression type. In another embodiment, the semanticevaluator 134 identifies the expression as a command to modify a userinterface.

In some embodiments, a response generating component 136 generates aresponse to the expression based on the identified expression type andresponsive to an execution of a computer program associated with theresponse type specified by the definition of the expression type. In oneembodiment, the response generating component 136 provides a response byexecuting a computer program. In another embodiment, the responsegenerating component 136 generates a response responsive to a responsetype specified in the definition of the expression type.

The display component 3938 displays a generated response to the user ina user interface displayed according to the display format specified bythe definition of the expression type. In one embodiment, the displaycomponent 3938 in the information retrieval system 110 modifies the userinterface to include output data resulting from an execution of codeidentified by the definition specifying the display format. In anotherembodiment, the display component 3938 transmits to the client 102 acommand to execute a computer program for execution by a browserapplication displaying the user interface including the generatedresponse on the client 102.

In some embodiments, the display component 3938 modifies a userinterface displaying a generated response to a user during the firstsession between the user and the information retrieval system 110. Inother embodiments, the display component 3938 modifies a user interfacedisplaying a generated response to a user during a second sessionbetween the user and the information retrieval system 110. In stillother embodiments, the display component 3938 modifies a user interfacedisplaying a generated response to a second user during a first sessionbetween the second user and the information retrieval system 110. Forexample, the display component 3938 may store in the informationretrieval system 110 a command to modify the user interface according tothe specified display format for all subsequent sessions between theuser, or a second user, and the information retrieval system 110, or forsubsequent sessions in which the user, or a second user, provides anexpression having the defined expression type.

Referring now to FIG. 40, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken in a method for hosting a programming environment andprocessing user input within an information retrieval system. In briefoverview, during a first session between a user and an informationretrieval system, a definition of an expression type is received fromthe user, the definition specifying an expression format, a responsetype, and a display format (step 4002). The definition of the expressiontype is stored (step 4004). During a second session between the user andthe information retrieval system, an expression having a semanticstructure is received from the user (step 4006). The semantic structureof the expression is evaluated (step 4008). A response to the expressionis displayed to the user in a user interface displayed according to thedisplay format specified by the definition of the expression type (step4010).

Referring now to FIG. 40 and in greater detail, during a first sessionbetween a user and an information retrieval system, a definition of anexpression type is received from the user, the definition specifying anexpression format, a response type, and a display format (step 4002). Inone embodiment, the definition of the expression type is received viaone of a plurality of media gateways. In another embodiment, theexpression type in the received definition identifies an expressionhaving a specified expression format as a command to execute a computerprogram.

In one embodiment, a user interface is modified responsive to thedisplay format specified in the received definition. In anotherembodiment, the display format specified in the received definitionidentifies a format for an element of a user interface displaying aresponse of the specified response type. In still another embodiment,the display format specified in the received definition modifies anexisting user interface element in a user interface displayed to theuser. In yet another embodiment, the display format specified in thereceived definition adds a user interface element to a user interfacedisplayed to the user.

In some embodiments, the user uploads a resource to the informationretrieval system 110, the resource including the definition of theexpression type. In one of these embodiments, the information retrievalsystem 110 includes the functionality of the interaction environment 110as described above in connection with FIGS. 29-35. In another of theseembodiments, at least one predefined marker in the resource includes thedefinition of the expression type. In still another of theseembodiments, the user uploads a resource including programming codespecifying the definition of the expression type. In yet another ofthese embodiments, programming code may be written in a programminglanguage, a scripting language, a markup language or other computerlanguage.

In other embodiments, the user provides programming code to theinformation retrieval system 110 by typing code into a user interfaceelement displayed to the user. In one of these embodiments, theinformation retrieval system 110 includes the functionality of theinteraction environment 110 as described above in connection with FIGS.36-38. In another of these embodiments, the programming code includingthe definition of the expression type may be written in a programminglanguage, a scripting language, a markup language or other computerlanguage.

The definition of the expression type is stored (step 4004). In oneembodiment, the definition is stored in the information retrieval system110. In another embodiment, the definition is stored with anidentification of the user.

During a second session between the user and the information retrievalsystem, an expression having a semantic structure is received from theuser (step 4006). In one embodiment, the expression is received from theuser during the first session. In another embodiment, the expressionhaving the semantic structure is received from a second user during afirst session between the second user and the information retrievalsystem. In still another embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives theexpression having the semantic structure. In yet another embodiment, thetransceiver 132 receives the expression as described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A.

The semantic structure of the expression is evaluated (step 4008). Inone embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 identifies the semanticstructure as having a format matching the expression format specified inthe received definition. For example, the semantic structure of theexpression may include a word order or linguistic pattern specified inthe expression format. In another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134determines that the expression is a type of expression previouslydefined by the user, responsive to the evaluation of the semanticstructure. In still another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134transmits the identification of the expression type and the expressionto a response generating component for generation of a response based onthe response type provided in the definition of the expression type. Inyet another embodiment, the semantic evaluator 134 transmits, to thedisplay component 3938, the identification of the expression type, theexpression, and a response to the expression. In some embodiments, thesemantic evaluator 134 provides the functionality described above inconnection with FIGS. 29-35 and 36-38.

A response to the expression is displayed to the user in a userinterface displayed according to the display format specified by thedefinition of the expression type (step 4010). In one embodiment, thedefinition of the expression type is associated with an identificationof a user upon receiving the definition from the user. In anotherembodiment, the identification of the user is retrieved when the useraccesses the information retrieval system. In still another embodiment,one or more definitions previously received from the user are retrievedwhen the user accesses the information retrieval system, responsive tothe identification of the user. In yet another embodiment, the one ormore definitions are applied to generate or modify the user interfacedisplayed to the user when the user accesses the information retrievalsystem.

Referring now to FIG. 41, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of asystem for receiving a user-defined display format and a user-identifiedcomputer program and displaying a user interface modified responsive tothe received user input. In brief overview, the system includes a client102 and a server 106. An interaction environment 110 executes in avirtual machine 108, which executes on the server 106. The interactionenvironment 110 provides an information retrieval component 116 and auser interface module 130. The information retrieval component 116 is incommunication with a search index 118 and a collection of information120. The user interface module 130 comprises a transceiver 132, asemantic evaluator 134, a response generating component 136, and adisplay component 2938.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a first session between a user andthe interaction environment 110 displayed in a graphical user interface,a resource including a plurality of predefined markers and a firstcomputer program executable by a browser on the client 102 displayingthe graphical user interface, at least one of the plurality ofpredefined markers identifying a display format of at least onegraphical user interface element in the graphical user interface. Thetransceiver 132 receives, from the user, a definition specifying aresponse type identifying a second computer program for execution by aremote machine, such as the server 106, upon user interaction with theat least one graphical user interface element in the graphical userinterface.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a second session between the userand the interaction environment, an expression. The display component2938 displays, during the second session between the user and theinteraction environment, the resource and the at least one graphicaluser interface element formatted responsive to the at least one of theplurality of predefined markers in the resource. The response generatingcomponent 136 provides a response to the expression based on anexecution of the second computer program identified by the response typespecified by the definition received from the user, the responsegenerated upon interaction, by the user, with the at least one graphicaluser interface element, the response displayed, by the displaycomponent, to the user, in a viewable display format, responsive to atleast one of the plurality of predefined markers.

Referring now to FIG. 41, and in greater detail, the interactionenvironment 110 executes in the virtual machine 108. The interactionenvironment 110 provides the functionality described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A. As described above in connection with FIG. 2A, theinformation retrieval component 116 provided by the interactionenvironment 110 is in communication with the search index 118 and thecollection of information 120 and provides functionality for searchingfor and retrieving information from the search index 118 and thecollection of information 120. As described above in connection withFIG. 2A, the user interface module 130 provided by the interactionenvironment 110 is in communication with the information retrievalcomponent 116 and provides the user with an interface and functionalityfor interacting with the interaction environment 110, forwardingreceived user-input to the appropriate components within the interactionenvironment 110. In some embodiments, as described above in connectionwith FIG. 2A, the user interface module 130 comprises a transceiver 132,a semantic evaluator 134, a response generating component 136, and adisplay component 2938.

The transceiver 132 receives, during a first session between a user andthe interaction environment 110 displayed in a graphical user interface,a resource including a plurality of predefined markers and a firstcomputer program executable by a browser on the client 102 displayingthe graphical user interface, at least one of the plurality ofpredefined markers identifying a display format of at least onegraphical user interface element in the graphical user interface. In oneembodiment, the interaction environment 110 is accessed via thegraphical user interface provided by a browser or other application forviewing network-accessible information. The browser may be provided on acomputer, a mobile telephone, or other client device 102 as describedabove in connection with FIGS. 1A and 1B.

In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 further comprises a receiver.In one of these embodiments, the receiver receives, during the firstsession between the user and the interaction environment 110, from theuser, the resource including a plurality of predefined markersidentifying an expression type. In another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives, during the first session between the user and theinteraction environment, from the user, the resource including aplurality of predefined markers expressed in a markup language, such asa Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or an Extensible Markup Language(XML). In still another of these embodiments, the receiver receives,during the first session between the user and the interactionenvironment, from the user, the resource including a plurality ofpredefined markers identifying a display format. In one embodiment, thetransceiver 132 stores the received resource.

In some embodiments, the interaction environment receives the definitionspecifying the expression type as described above in connection withFIG. 29-FIG. 35. As described above, predefined markers may identifyexpressions contained in the resource—for example, by identifying anexpression as a statement to be added to the interaction environment, oras a command for retrieval of information responsive to an implicitquery. Also as described above, predefined markers may compriseexecutable code written in a programming language. The transceiver 132receives, during a first session between a user and the interactionenvironment 110 displayed in a graphical user interface, a resourceincluding a first computer program executable by a browser on the client102 displaying the graphical user interface. In one embodiment, thefirst computer program comprises a second plurality of predefinedmarkers. In another embodiment, a user interface presented to the useris modified to include output data resulting from an execution of thefirst computer program. For example, the user interface may be modifiedto include a table, defined in HTML code, within the resource, showingdata contained in expressions identified in the resource. In anotherexample, the user interface may be modified to include the output ofexecuting JavaScript code, ActiveX code, or code written in a scriptinglanguage. In some embodiments, a browser on the client 102 executes codeidentified by the interaction environment 110.

At least one of the plurality of predefined markers in the resourceidentifies a display format of at least one graphical user interfaceelement in the graphical user interface. In one embodiment, the atgraphical user interface element comprises a graphical element, such asan image, a text box, an image of a button, an image of a radio button,an icon, or other graphical element. In another embodiment, the at leastone graphical user interface element comprises an element in a graphicaluser interface such as a text string, a reference to a uniform resourcelocator, a table, or other textual element. In some embodiments, thegraphical user interface previously displayed the graphical userinterface element. In one of these embodiments, at least one of thepredetermined markers identifies a modification to the formatting of thegraphical user interface element. In other embodiments, the graphicaluser interface does not include the graphical user interface element atthe time the predefined marker is received. In one of these embodiments,the predefined marker identifies a graphical user interface element tobe added to the graphical user interface.

The transceiver 132 receives, from the user, a definition specifying aresponse type identifying a second computer program for execution by aremote machine, such as the server 106, upon user interaction with theat least one graphical user interface element in the graphical userinterface. In one embodiment, the transceiver 132 receives thedefinition from the user during the first session. In anotherembodiment, the transceiver 132 receives the definition from the userduring a second session. In still another embodiment, the transceiver132 receives the definition from a second user.

In some embodiments, the transceiver 132 includes a receiver. In one ofthese embodiments, the receiver receives, from the user, a definitionspecifying an expression format. In another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives, from the user, a definition specifying an expressionformat identifying a linguistic pattern or word order of an expressionhaving the expression type. In still another of these embodiments, thereceiver receives, from the user, a definition specifying an expressionformat identifying a type of image, icon, or drawing.

In one embodiment, the receiver receives, from the user, a definitionspecifying a response type identifying a second computer program forexecution upon user interaction with a second graphical user interfaceelement in the graphical user interface. For example, the response typemay identify a computer program for execution by the server 106 uponclicking, by the user, on the identified interface element. In anotherembodiment, the receiver receives, from the user, a definitionspecifying a response type associated with a second computer programtransmitted, by the user, to the interaction environment. In stillanother embodiment, the interaction environment receives a definitionspecifying a response type identifying a computer program from the useras described above in connection with FIG. 36-38.

The display component 2938 displays, during the second session betweenthe user and the interaction environment, the resource and the at leastone graphical user interface element formatted responsive to the atleast one of the plurality of predefined markers in the resource. In oneembodiment, the display component 2938 displays, in the graphical userinterface on the client 102, the resource and at least one graphicaluser interface element formatted responsive to the at least one of theplurality of predefined markers in the resource. In some embodiments,the display component 2938 executes programming code included in theresource to display the resource in a viewable display format. In one ofthese embodiments, for example, the resource may include one or moreexpressions identified by a first subset of the plurality of predefinedmarkers and a display format, identified by a second subset of theplurality of predefined markers, for displaying the one or moreexpressions. In other embodiments, the display component 2938 modifiesthe graphical user interface to include one or more user interfaceelements specified by the plurality of predefined markers in theresource, as described above in connection with FIGS. 29-35.

The transceiver 132 receives, during the second session between the userand the interaction environment 110, an expression. In some embodiments,the transceiver 132 receives the expression as described above inconnection with FIG. 2A. In one of these embodiments, the user enters anexpression having a semantic structure into a user interface elementsuch as a text box. In other embodiments, the user enters an expressionsuch as a drawing, a picture (for example, clip art or a drawing from afile), a diagram, a chart, or other non-textual object.

The user interacts with the at least one graphical user interfaceelement displayed in the user interface according to the user-defineddisplay format. In one embodiment, the user interacts with the graphicaluser interface element to request information retrieval. For example,the graphical user interface element may be a button on which the userclicks, using a pointing device, to request a search for a keywordentered into a text box. In another embodiment, the user interacts withthe graphical user interface to request storage of data or modificationof stored data. For example, the graphical user interface element may bea button on which the user clicks, using a pointing device, to requestthe transfer of a picture file from the client 102 to the interactionenvironment 110, or of a drawing entered by the user into a userinterface displayed by a browser on a client 102, the drawing entered byusing a pointing device.

The response generating component 136 provides a response to theexpression based on an execution of the second computer programidentified by the response type specified by the definition receivedfrom the user. In one embodiment, a user interaction with a userinterface element—such as a mouse click on a button element—triggersexecution of the second computer program. In another embodiment,programming code executed by a browser on the client 102—such as theexecution of a plurality of predetermined markers comprising codewritten in a markup language—includes a command to execute a secondcomputer program on the server 102 upon interaction, by the user, with auser interface element identified by at least one of the plurality ofpredetermined markers. In still another embodiment, the expression istransmitted to the second computer program executing on the server 106with an identification of an expression type of the expression. In yetanother embodiment, the second computer program generates a response tothe expression based on a response type specified in a definition of theexpression type identified as the expression type of the expression.

Referring now to FIG. 42, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken in a method for receiving a user-defined display format anda user-identified computer program and displaying a user interfacemodified responsive to the received user input. In brief overview,during a first session between a user and an interaction environmentdisplayed in a graphical user interface, a resource including aplurality of predefined markers and a first computer program executableby a browser displaying the graphical user interface is received fromthe user, at least one of the plurality of predefined markersidentifying a display format of at least one graphical user interfaceelement in the graphical user interface (step 4202). A definitionspecifying a response type is received from the user, the response typeidentifying a second computer program for execution by a remote machineupon user interaction with the at least one graphical user interfaceelement in the graphical user interface displayed by the interactionenvironment (step 4204). During a second session between the user andthe interaction environment, the graphical user interface displays theresource and the at least one graphical user interface element formattedresponsive to the at least one of the plurality of predefined markers inthe resource (step 4206). The user provides an expression (step 4208).The user interacts with the at least one graphical user interfaceelement (step 4210). A response to the expression is generated based onan execution of the second computer program identified by the responsetype specified by the definition received from the user (step 4212). Theresponse is displayed in a viewable display format, responsive to atleast one of the plurality of predefined markers (step 4214).

Referring now to FIG. 42, and in greater detail, during a first sessionbetween a user and an interaction environment displayed in a graphicaluser interface, a resource including a plurality of predefined markersand a first computer program executable by a browser displaying thegraphical user interface is received from the user, at least one of theplurality of predefined markers identifying a display format of at leastone graphical user interface element in the graphical user interface(step 4202). In one embodiment, a resource is received from the user,the resource including a plurality of predefined markers identified anexpression type. In another embodiment, a resource is received from theuser, the resource including a plurality of predefined markers expressedin a programming language.

In one embodiment, a resource is received from a user, the resourceincluding a plurality of predefined markers identifying a displayformat. In another embodiment, the plurality of predefined markers isexpressed in a markup language, such as an Extensible Markup Language(XML) or a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

A definition specifying a response type is received from the user, theresponse type identifying a second computer program for execution by aremote machine upon user interaction with the at least one graphicaluser interface element in the graphical user interface displayed by theinteraction environment (step 4204). In one embodiment, the interactionenvironment 110 receives, from the user, a definition specifying anexpression format. In another embodiment, the interaction environment110 receives, from the user, a definition specifying an expressionformat identifying a linguistic pattern or word order of an expressionhaving the expression format. In still another embodiment, theinteraction environment 110 receives, from the user, a definitionspecifying a response type associated with a first computer programtransmitted, by the user, to the interaction environment. In yet anotherembodiment, the interaction environment 110 receives, from the user, adefinition specifying a response type identifying a third computerprogram for execution upon user interaction with a second graphical userinterface element in the graphical user interface. In some embodiments,the definition is stored. In one of these embodiments, the definition isretrieved and applied to graphical user interfaces displayed duringsubsequent sessions between the user who provided the definition and theinteraction environment 110, or between other users and the interactionenvironment 110.

During a second session between the user and the interactionenvironment, the graphical user interface displays the resource and theat least one graphical user interface element formatted responsive tothe at least one of the plurality of predefined markers in the resource(step 4206). In one embodiment, during the second session, the graphicaluser interface displays the resource and at least one graphical userinterface element formatted responsive to the at least one of theplurality of predefined markers in the resource. In another embodiment,during the second session, the graphical user interface displays theresource and a second graphical user interface element formattedresponsive to the at least one of the plurality of predefined markers inthe resource. In some embodiments, the plurality of predefined markersin the resource comprises a computer program, which is executed todisplay the graphical user interface. In one of these embodiments, theplurality of predefined markers in the resource comprises a computerprogram, which is executed to modify an element in the graphical userinterface.

The user provides an expression (step 4208). In one embodiment, theexpression has a semantic structure. In another embodiment, the userprovides a string or plurality of words having a semantic structure. Instill another embodiment, the user provides a non-textual expression,including, but not limited to, a drawing, an icon, a picture, and animage file. In yet another embodiment, the interaction environment 110receives the expression from the user as described above in connectionwith FIGS. 2A and 28A-C.

The user interacts with the at least one graphical user interfaceelement (step 4210). In one embodiment, the user interacts with thegraphical user interface element to request information retrieval ormodification of stored information.

A response to the expression is generated based on an execution of thesecond computer program identified by the response type specified by thedefinition received from the user (step 4212). In one embodiment, a userinteraction with a user interface element—such as a mouse click on abutton element—triggers execution of the second computer program. Inanother embodiment, programming code executed by a browser on the client102—such as the execution of a plurality of predetermined markerscomprising code written in a markup language—includes a command toexecute a second computer program on the server 102 upon interaction, bythe user, with a user interface element identified by at least one ofthe plurality of predetermined markers. In still another embodiment, theexpression is transmitted to the second computer program executing onthe server 106 with an identification of an expression type of theexpression. In yet another embodiment, the second computer programgenerates a response to the expression based on a response typespecified in a definition of the expression type identified as theexpression type of the expression.

The response is displayed in a viewable display format, responsive to atleast one of the plurality of predefined markers (step 4214). In oneembodiment, the response includes an expression that is displayed. Inanother embodiment, the response includes modified graphical userinterface elements. In still another embodiment, the response isdisplayed as described above in connection with FIGS. 29-35.

The following illustrative examples show how the methods and systemsdescribed above can be used for providing person-to-person, high-enddesign services. These examples are meant to illustrate and not to limitthe invention.

EXAMPLE 1

In one embodiment, an interaction environment 110, referred to as a GAD,is a robot or software agent that can learn and store information asusers interact with it. Users can interact with a GAD through a varietyof media including, but not limited to, chat, email, and short messageservice (SMS). Since the GAD is a software program, it can also beaccessed through Web Interfaces. This example includes both adescription of a particular implementation, as well as a description ofone embodiment of how this particular implementation can be modified.

GAD Overview

Once logged in the system, the user interacts with a GAD. In thisexample, the interaction occurs via a chatting service, such as instantmessenger. This GAD is both an information repository and, moregenerally, an environment for interaction. In some embodiments, a GADmay be considered to be a robot, as it stores (or “knows”) certain factsbut is also “trained” to interact with users. FIG. 2B depicts a screenshot in which a user interacts with a GAD named “roche-gad”. A GAD canhave any name. In this example, a “default GAD” is created every time auser signs in and this “default GAD” takes the name USERNAME-gad. Thescreen in FIG. 2B identifies two pieces of data:

-   -   who is logged in (indicated by the “Welcome USERNAME”)    -   with which GAD the individual who has logged in (USERNAME) is        currently interacting (indicated by “GAD: GADNAME”)

FIG. 2F shows that the system may handle an arbitrary number of users aswell as an arbitrary number of GADs. Every user can interact with anarbitrary number of GADs in the system (although the set of GADs withwhich an actual user can interact may depend on particular permissionsassociated with each GAD).

Referring back to FIG. 2B, the screen shot depicts a user typing thefollowing expression:

Add statement “bill extension is 245”

When the user presses the Enter key or clicks on the graphical userinterface element labeled “SUBMIT”, this client machine transmits thisexpression to the GAD system. FIG. 29B depicts one embodiment of asystem for processing this user input.

In one embodiment, the GAD system receives expressions and requests froma “Gateway”. FIG. 29B depicts three possible gateways, the WEB Gatewayof Box 10, the Chat-IM Gateway of box 12 and the SMS-Call Gateway or box14. In one embodiment, a gateway is code that receives user input andtransmits the received user input to a receiver component within theGAD. In the case of the Web Gateway depicted by FIG. 2B, a gad isprovided by a CGI script. In some embodiments, the user input is notonly the string typed, but also an identifier of the GAD with which theuser interacts and, optionally, an identifier of the user. Anothermodule (box 16 in FIG. 29B) determines whether the user is registered inthe system and, if so, whether the user has a level of permissionnecessary to access this GAD. In some embodiments, this module isoptional. In one of these embodiments, a GAD system is an open systemand no levels of permission are required (if the information is publicor if the whole system is hidden behind a firewall and open to usersbehind the firewall, for instance). The converser module takes the inputstring, decides whether it is a request for information or whether itmodifies the content of the GAD. In the case of the following string,the input expression includes an explicit command a statement:

Add statement “bill extension is 245”

The input expression contains the explicit command “add statement”,which indicates that the part of the input expression in quotes shouldbe added as additional content to the current GAD. FIG. 43 shows thatthe GAD acknowledges the addition of new content. The statement “billextension is 245” is stored by the GAD.

At this point, the information can be retrieved by anyone having accessto the GAD. FIG. 44 shows that by typing “Bill extension”, the systemrecognizes a request for information and produces the answer. In someembodiments, the system recognized an implicit request for information(based, for example, on the linguistic pattern or the word order of thequery). In other embodiments, the user may explicitly search forrelevant information as shown on FIG. 44 where the user explicitlyenters a request (“search bill”).

Similarly, the addition of information can be done either explicitly orimplicitly. The “Add statement “bill extension is 245”” expressiondescribed above was an example of an explicit addition of information.FIG. 45 shows an example of an implicit addition of informationincluding the following string:

John extension is 267

FIG. 46 shows a screen shot in which information added by a user, eitherexplicitly or implicitly, can be retrieved by explicit or implicitquestions.

GADs can be used to store user-specific information (contact names,birthday dates, etc.) as well as general statements of fact. Forinstance, FIG. 47 shows the storing of a universal constant of thephysical world. FIG. 48 is a screen shot depicting retrieval of thisinformation using the same method that allows a user to retrievepersonal information. FIG. 48 shows that GAD can be used in a widevariety of situations: storing personal information, storing completelypublic and universal information, storing a combination of the two, andso on. For example, a user could create a GAD storing informationrelated to a family, sport team, working group, company, interest group,and so forth.

Referring back to FIG. 28B, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of thesteps taken by the converser. The converser identifies a type of userinput, for example, identifying the user input as an information requestor as input which modifies the content of the GAD. In the embodimentdepicted by FIG. 28B, the information is stored in a search index.However, the information could also be stored in a database, such as arelational database. In some embodiments, the converser decides whetherto ask for information or add information based on various sequence oftests. In one embodiment, the converser proceeds sequentially throughthe following four steps for each user input:

-   -   1. Is it a formal command? The converser has a list of        predefined key word or key word sequences such as search, add        statement, and list statements. The converser behaves in a        predefined way upon identification of a predefined key word. In        one embodiment, if a formal command is recognized within an        expression then the converser does not proceed to the next        steps.    -   2. Is it a question with an answer? As a second step, the        converser will execute a question-answering method to recognize        questions in expressions such as “what is bill phone number” and        “who discovered electricity.” The converser will also recognize        implicit questions. Implicit questions are typically noun        phrases that do not look like questions but that implicitly        request information. For instance, if a user types “bill        extension”, the system interprets this as a request for        information, namely what is the extension of bill. This is        different from a noun phrase such as “green book,” which would        not be understood as a question. A process for recognizing a        question is described in additional detail in U.S. Published        Application No. 2004/0117352 published Jun. 17, 2004, titled        “System for Answering Natural Language Questions,” which is        incorporated herein by reference. If the converser identifies        the expression as a question with an answer, then the system can        decide to stop the processing of the input there. In other        embodiments, the converser continues to process the next steps.    -   3. Does running the user input as an exact phrase match return        any GAD content? At this point, the converser performs a search        using the expression entered by the user explicitly as provided        by the user. For example, if the user types “bill phone        extension”, the search query will be exactly that phrase. In one        embodiment, if a statement have only two or the three words, or        if the three words are not exactly in sequence provided by the        user, then the statement will not be matched with information        stored by the GAD. The default type of search query, an exact        phrase match, could be modified to allow a different query type        (for example, by allowing modification of the phrase to include        an “AND” between words, or to allow for a match with a phrase        that includes the words of the user-provided phrase but with        possible words interspersed, or any other query type). Another        possible behavior is to constrain the search to have at least        two words in a search phrase or to have more than a predefined        number of words in a search phrase. For instance, if the user        enters a single word, then the search is not performed. If there        is no content matching the user input at this point, the system        can decide to proceed to the final step.    -   4. Is the input recognized as an implicit request for adding        information to the GAD? For instance, when analyzing the user        input described above, “John extension is 267”, the system may        recognize the linguistic pattern NOUN_PHRASE IS NOUN_PHRASE and        decide that this is a statement that should be added to an        information repository. This sequence of 4 steps is by no means        a necessity to a GAD system. It is merely one embodiment of GAD        behavior, which may be customized both system-wide and at the        level of any particular GAD or user. FIG. 28C describes possible        sequences. For instance the sequence “Start 1 end” indicates        that the GAD interaction will only respond to predefined        commands whereas the sequence “Start 3 4 end” indicates that the        system will only try explicit phrase search and recognizing        statement additions. FIG. 28C does not attempt to show all        possible combinations, but shows that there are many other        meaningful way for the converser to decide what action to take.        User Permissions

In the previous section, different levels of permissions for GADs weredescribed. Users creating a new GAD may want to restrict access to theGAD to themselves or to a group of people whom they trust. Additionally,a user deciding to grant access to a GAD to a large number of people,may choose to specify a level of access—for example allowing them toonly access the information but not to modify it.

In one GAD configuration, a GAD will be a “private” GAD upon creation,allowing only the creator of the GAD to access information stored by theGAD (both for reading and writing). As described above in connectionwith FIG. 2C, however, the user may choose to set different level ofpermissions, including:

-   -   public read, which allows anyone to access the GAD and read the        information but only allowing a creator of a GAD to modify        GAD-stored information;    -   public write, which allows anyone to access the GAD and to        modify the content;    -   public admin, which is a type of public write access. In        addition, however, anyone can change the permissions and modify        or delete the GAD.

If a user chooses the “Private” setting for GAD access privileges, theuser still has the option of allowing a particular group of people toaccess the GAD. FIG. 19B shows a screen shot of window in which a usercan add any number of additional users to a particular GAD. Each usermay have either a “read”, “write” or “admin” permission level. Althoughnot depicted in FIG. 19B, a GAD system could also provide “user groups”(similar to traditional UNIX user groups) to make the permission levelseasier to manage.

Once invited, the gad will be part of a user's “JUMP TO A GAD” pull-downmenu. To request access to a public GAD, a user may click on a “Join aGAD” hyperlink and type in a GAD name, as shown in FIG. 19C.

Multiple Conversations

When a user interacts with a particular GAD, the converser creates anobject called a con versation. A conversation is an object that storesparticular elements of what is happening to the conversation. Forinstance, it may store the user's last query or queries, the last answerprovided to the user, or anything relevant to the current interaction.The name conversation reflects the fact that this object stores datarelated to the current conversation. In some embodiments, this resultsin the following:

-   -   different users interacting with different gads will use        distinct conversations    -   when a user logs out and then back it will lose the initial        conversation and have another one created

FIGS. 2D and 2E show how a conversation object stores information aboutthe current interaction. In FIG. 2D, a user makes a request thatgenerates more answers than can be displayed. In the FIG. 2E, the usertypes “more” to request a display of more answers. Because theconversation stored the last question and stored how many answers italready displayed, the system knows that it needs to display thepreviously-undisplayed answers generated responsive to the previousrequest.

A conversation can store complex data. A conversation can store aVirtual Machine (VM) state of a programming language embedded within theconverser. The size of the conversation object need not necessarily besmall or null.

When a user starts interacting with a given GAD, a conversation isassigned to this interaction. A logged-in user will have a session-keyassociated to them and when the user starts using a new GAD, aconversation will be associated with this session key. FIG. 49 displayspseudo-code for allowing a converser process to handle multipleconversations.

In this pseudo-code, the input is a session-key and a gadid. On line 1,it checks whether the converser C contains a conversation associatedwith the current session key. If yes, it simply returns it. Otherwise(line 3), it checks whether there is a conversation which is currentlynot used inside the converser. If yes, it associates this conversationwith the current GAD and the current session-key. Otherwise (line 6), ittries to create a new conversation which is then bound to the currentGAD and the current session key. Otherwise (line 10) it means that theconverser is unable to create a new conversation (because no more memoryis available for instance or because a preset maximum number ofconversation per converser has been reached. In that case, it will takethe conversation that has not been used for the longest period of timeand reassign it to the current GAD and the current session ID. This lastpart may terminate a conversation used by another user but it gives amechanism for the system as a whole to be responsive under heavy usage.Obviously, other heuristics are possible: for instance, the system couldrefuse to create a new conversation until somebody else in the systemreleases one.

Failover

This is section addresses a system including failover functionality tominimize loss of data and to enable users to interact with GADs, even ifa particular server becomes unavailable.

FIG. 50 shows a converser on one server saving data associated with aGAD on another server. In one embodiment, the servers are functionallyidentical and provide the following advantages:

-   -   multiple user will be able to access either server which will        distribute the computing load;    -   if one server fails (due to a hardware failure, for instance),        the other server will be able to process user requests and the        data associated with GADs provided by the failed server will not        be lost.

FIG. 51 depicts conversers accessing GAD-related information stored in acentral database. FIG. 52 depicts a scalable system. As shown in FIG.52, the information associated with GADs numbered 1 through 9,999 isstored on the first two servers (for redundancy and failover) while thedata associated with GADs numbered 10,000 through 19,999 is stored onthe next pair of servers. It is therefore possible to scale thedeployment of the system to support any number of GADs, regardless ofthe total amount of information being stored.

User-GAD Persistent Information

A GAD can store information associated with a given user, such asnickname or profile. This is different than the user profile within thewhole system. For instance, a user could have a different nick-name whenaddressed by different GADs. This reflects the fact that a GAD emulatesa virtual user.

Publishing Through Resources

Format Conversion

The GAD system provides multiple ways to add information to a GAD andalso multiple ways to look at it. A user can add information by chattingwith the GAD. The GAD system allows users to write or upload documents,called resources. Once these documents are uploaded, they are storedas-is (although users may modify them later) and then the GAD analyzesthem. The analysis consists of several steps including the extraction ofindividual statements or pieces of information from the resource. Thesepieces of information are then also stored independently and can be usedto answer question in the same manner as is the statement had been addedthrough a chat session.

FIG. 31B shows that the user can choose his/her preferred format topublish documents.

FIG. 31A and FIG. 53 show that an XML page can be used to add one ormultiple statements to the information repository of the current GAD.This is particularly useful is the number of statements to be maintainedis large (thousands for instance). Each page can also be displayed inthe Web interface and the “Preview” button allows the user to see howthe page would be displayed before actually processing (see FIG. 32 andFIG. 54).

FIG. 33 and FIG. 55 shows how the page is displayed once a user hasclicked on the “Save” link. At this point, the statements (or, as inthat example, the single statement) are also part of the set ofstatements in the system. FIG. 34 and FIG. 56 show that such a statementis immediately available through the chat-like interface. So if the usertypes (as in FIG. 56) “what is the speed of light”, the system will beable to produce the answer from the statement added through the justpublished page.

FIG. 57 and FIG. 58 show that the same page can also be edited through aWYSIWYG editor or through HTML. In HTML, the tag “span” is used toindicate statements but could also be used to indicate any GAD specificcontent.

FIG. 59 shows what happens when a new page is published (whether it's anXML page or an HTML page). The system extracts all the statements fromthe page and adds them to the GAD as if the user had typed “addstatement” for each single statement. The GAD system will also store theoriginal page such that it can be visualized and modified. In addition,the page itself is indexed such that it becomes searchable. Thisindexing can include the type of indexing used by question-answeringsystems. In many instances, the page is an HTML page and may or may notcontain any explicit statements. In those instances, the page is stilluseful because it can be displayed and is searchable.

FIG. 60 shows a document can be published first in one format and thentransformed into another one. For instance, the format could be XML(described as “GAD-XML” in the figure) and could then be transformedinto HTML and then edited as a HTML document. Alternatively, a Wiki-likeformat could also be used. The same figure also shows that users coulddefine their own format (noted “Custom XML”) and also submit the meansto transform this custom format into the regular GAD-XML format. Thistransformation can be specified using the XSLT format which can be usedto map a XML into another XML.

Permissions at the Resource Level

TT: A Programming Language for GADs

TT Overview

One feature of the GAD system is that it is possible for user to specifycode, which can then be executed on the GAD servers based on user-input.FIG. 61 shows one embodiment of a standard view of a GAD. Note the “TTCode” link on the left of the page. When the user first clicks on thislink, the system displays the screen shown in FIG. 62. At this point theuser (assuming the user has the necessary permission level for this GAD)can enter code in a programming language. In one embodiment, the systemexpects to receive code written in a particular programming languagecalled TT (which has been designed to simplify the customization ofGADs).

FIG. 37A and FIG. 63 depict embodiments in which a user has entered somecode. In FIG. 63, the code is the following:

1 tt_pred welcome(arg); 2 welcome.sequence(“hello _arg{ X }”); 34 trigger welcome{ 5  tt_gad_conversation conversation;6 conversation=get_tt_gad_conversation( ); 7 print(“Hello“+conversation.get_user_name( )+”!”); 8 return 1; 9 }

This code is designed to allow the following behavior. When a user types“hello”, followed by any other text, the GAD system will recognize thatthis should trigger a particular action. In the embodiment displayed byFIG. 63, the action will simply be to answer back “hello” followed bythe user name. The program code shown in FIG. 63 defines a predicate,which describes a particular type of user input. In that embodiment (seeline 1), the predicate is called “welcome” and it only has one argumentcalled “arg”. Line 2 says that this predicate should be recognized eachtime the user types the word “hello” followed by any sequence of words(X stands for any sequence of words). In addition, when such an input isdetected, the words following the keyword “hello” will be stored in thepredicate argument called “arg” (marked by the “_arg{” and “}” symbols).The code associated to the predicate “welcome” is listed between lines 4and 9. The key word “trigger” indicates that “welcome” is the predicatethat should trigger this particular code. Lines 5 and 6 provide apointer to the current conversation (which contains information relatedto this particular interaction user-gad). In particular, theconversation contains the name of the current user which can berecovered by the method call “conversation.get user name”. Line 7 writesback “Hello”, followed by the name of the current user. Line 8 indicatesthat the code associated with the current trigger has been executedwithout errors.

FIG. 64 shows the screen once the user clicks on the “COMPILE” link. Atthis point the server just looks for potential errors. The user can thenclick on the “SAVE” link and see the screen of FIG. 65.

At this point the program is loaded in GAD server (in the case of TT, acompiled version of it is loaded) on the GAD servers and next time theuser types any input it will be compared against all possible predicate.FIG. 66 shows that if the user types something like “hello tt”, ittriggers the TT code that was just typed, which results in the promptingback of “Hello admin!” (note that “admin” is the user name in thatcase).

Accessing TT Directly Through the Chat-Like Interface

Rather than going through the “TT Code” link as described above, it isalso possible to type code interactively within the chat-like interfaceby first typing the line “switch tt” and then to go back out of theprogramming environment by simply typing “exit”. For instance, thefollowing sequence of instructions shows how this interaction can takeplace:

switch tt tt code line 1 tt code line 2 tt code line n exit this is acat

EXAMPLE 2 JavaScript-GAD Integration

Introduction

This example describes an embodiment of a GAD system hosting a fullyGUI-enabled application. In one embodiment, a complete GAD applicationcontains two distinct pieces of programming code:

-   -   some JavaScript code intended to run on the browser; and    -   some TT code running on the GAD servers        The JavaScript code is associated with a particular GAD page.        When this page is loaded the browser runs the JavaScript. Part        of the JavaScript code is able to send to the GAD system        instructions on how run a TT function. The TT code of that GAD        will then execute that function on the GAD server and the result        of this function is then sent back to the browser and the        JavaScript code can then use the result to display it to the        end-user. FIG. 67 shows how an application consists of a        JavaScript part handling the GUI and running on the browser and        a TT part which runs on the GAD server (within a converser).

FIG. 68 shows that the JavaScript code will first be created and editedby the administrator of the GAD and this code will then be uploaded onthe GAD server and stored on a GAD database together with the other webpages.

FIG. 69 shows that when this page is loaded by a regular user of theGAD, the following steps are performed:

-   -   the browser gets the page with the JavaScript code from the GAD        database through the Web Gateway    -   Whenever the JavaScript code encounters a command like        tt.executeFunction (FUNCNAME,ARG1, . . . ARGn) it recognizes        that this is a TT function call    -   The browser, executing the JavaScript code, then does an        XMLHttpRequest with the arguments specified in the Javascript        code. This request is sent to the same Web Gateway. The Web        Gateway then forwards this request, together with the GAD ID and        the SESSION KEY, to the converser    -   Then the converser executes this function call within the        conversation that has the correct SESSION KEY (there is a one to        one mapping between session keys and conversations within a        converser).    -   The converser then sends the result of the function (a string in        the current implementation) back to the Web Gateway    -   The Web Gateway then puts the answer into the initial        XMLHttpRequest which is then sent back to the browser    -   The Browser gets the answer back from its XMLHttpRequest and        continues the execution of the JavaScript code        Hello World

The following is an example of minimal JavaScript code stored in one ofthe pages associated to a GAD:

<script type=“text/javascript”><!-- var tt = new TT( ); var res =tt.executeFunction(“f1”, “name”) document.write(res); // --></script>Note the line that calls the tt.executeFunction method call. When thebrowser executes this function it issues the XMLHttpRequest whichexecute the following function call:

string f1(string name){  string str;  str=”Hello “ + name + “!”;  returnstr }“NOTE”: An Example

In this section, an application designed to save notes and to searchthem later is described. This application demonstrates how the systemcan be used to build much more elaborate applications.

A Short Description

FIG. 70 shows a page with a GAD called “tt-application-gad”. This pageis displayed by the end-user browser; the page contains both HTML andJavaScript. The HTML is generally used to display the static part of thepage (for instance the title “GAD Note”) whereas the Javascript code isused to represent the dynamic part of the page. This page is also calledthe home page of the application (in that case the application is called“NOTE”).

FIG. 71 shows what happens when the user clicks on the “add” button. TheJavascript part of the code displays a dialog in which the user can typeany kind of text to be stored as a note.

Once the user clicks on the “save” button, the Javascript code makes aXMLHttpRequest request to the GAD servers with, as argument, the contentof the note to be added and the fact that the required action is to adda note. The GAD server with the on-going conversation will receive thisrequest and execute the TT code associated with this application (thisis the code that has been added by the administrator of this GAD and itis shown below in this document). Once the TT code completes therequired action, it gives the result back through the XMLHttpRequestwhich makes it available to the Javascript code. The Javascript code cannow display the list of available notes as shown on FIG. 72. FIG. 73shows the same page once another note has been added by the same user.

The same application can also be used to do other actions. For instance,FIG. 74 shows that the user can type a search query to retrieveparticular notes. FIG. 75 shows the GAD displaying the query results tothe user.

Interacting With an Application Using a “Chat” Interface

It is also possible to design the TT code of the application such thatsome or all the functionalities of this application are accessibledirectly through the “Chat”/“Instant Message” interface. For instance,FIG. 76 shows that the user can type directly within the searchinterface (“note search bach”). The TT code of this gad recognizes thatthis user input should trigger a specific application action and the GADserver executes the corresponding TT code. In that case of the result isdisplayed directly within the Chat interface (the action could alsoresult in the change of display of the current page).

FIG. 77 shows another example of chat interaction. In that case, whenthe user types “note add this is a new note”, the GAD server willrecognize that it needs to execute part of the TT code which will add anew note with the content “this is a new note”. FIG. 78 shows the promptonce the note has been added through the chat interface. FIG. 79 showsthe screen after the user pressed the “show all” button. All the notesthat have been added, either through the chat interface or through theJavascript/GUI interface, are now visible together. Note that both thechat environment and the GUI interface have access to the same code andto the same data (whether stored permanently on the GAD servers ortemporarily within the current conversation which also lives on the GADservers).

The TT Code

If the administrator clicks on the “TT code” link visible within thecurrent GAD, as shown on FIG. 80, then window displaying the TT codewill be displayed as shown on FIG. 81. As shown on FIG. 82, this windowalso allows the administrator to change the TT code and to compile it(this will test whether any error was introduced) and then to save thecode (which will make it active for the current GAD).

Below is the complete TT code for this sample application. Code in boldprint specifies which user input should be recognized in the naturallanguage interface. The function add_note from line 1 to line 23 storesa note permanently in the information repository associated to thecurrent GAD. The function is called with 3 strings as arguments: theauthor's name (variable “author”), the current date and a stringrepresenting the content of the note (variable “content”). TT provides aset of predefined functions which allow the storage of data in adatabase-like manner. Line 8 creates an empty data structure which willfirst hold the note in memory. Lines 11 to 14 fill up the content ofthat item with the note. The model here is that the note will be addedin a database table called “Notes” which has at least 3 columns: Author,Date and Content. If the table “Notes” doesn't already exist it is addedimplicitly. The database in which this content is stored is specific tothe current GAD (i.e., it can be re-accessed from another session on thesame GAD). Line 16 does the actual storage action and returns a uniqueidentifier for the unit of information being stored.

Function search_contain between line 26 and 73 is used to search forexisting note containing a given set of keywords. Lines 35 to 38 preparea query object which describes the type of content which should besearched in the information repository associated to the current GAD.Lines 39 and 40 prepare an empty result object to hold the result of theinformation query. Line 41 performs the actual query and the rest of thefunction enumerates the result and prepares them such that they caneither be sent back to the Javascript program or used within another TTfunction.

The following function search_equal is similar to search_contain exceptthat it will return notes that whose specified fields are equal to a setof keywords. The following function show_all is used to list the entirelist of notes stored. Function delnote of line 172 to 186 is used toremove a note from the information repository associated to this GAD.Lines 188 and 189 define how the program will react to user inputthrough the interactive interface. Line 188 defines a predicate calledadd_note_pred which takes a single argument called note. Line 189associate a type of string to this predicate. The type of string isdefined by “$note add_note{X}$”. The symbol $ denotes both the beginningand the end of a line. “note” and “add” are explicit words expected tobe typed by the user. The two symbols “note{“and”}” indicates which partof the user input should be associated with the predicate's argument“note”. X stands for any sequence of word. The following user inputswill match this pattern:

note add this is a sample note

note add a reminder for me

note add something

with the note argument being respectively “this is a sample note”, “areminder for me” and “something”. On the other hand, a user input like:

please note add something

will not be matched here because the symbol “note add” is not at thebeginning of the line.

When a user enters an input string which matches the query, it willexecute the code from line 190 to 215. Line 190 indicates that whenevera string matches the predicate “add_note_pred”, it should execute thefollowing lines. This code is similar to the function “add_note”described above (except that “add_note” was designed to interact withthe Javascript code). A small different: line 207 assigns to str thecontent of tf note which is the note predicate argument associated tothe user input. For instance, if the user had typed:

add note this is a note

the value of tf note would be “this is a note”.

Similarly, lines 217 to 258 allow the user to search for a note byinteracting directly through the chat-line interface rather than throughthe Javascript code.

TT Code for the NOTE Application

1 tt_string add_note(tt_string author,tt_string date,tt_string content){2   tt_kor kor; 3   tt_kitem item; 4   int id; 5   tt_string res; 6 7  kor=get_tt_kor( ); 8   item=new tt_kitem( ); 9   item.clear( ); 10 11   item.set_table(“Notes”); 12    item.add_pair(“Author”,author); 13   item.add_pair(“Date”,date); 14    item.add_pair(“Content”,content);15 16    id=kor.add_kitem(item); 17    if(id==−1){ 18    res=“ERROR”; 19   }else{ 20    res=itos(id); 21    } 22    return res; 23  } 24 25 26 tt_string search_contain(tt_string keywords){ 27   tt_kor kor; 28  kor=get_tt_kor( ); 29   tt_kitem_result result; 30   tt_kitem_queryquery; 31   tt_string res; 32   tt_string attr_value; 33   int intid; 34  tt_string stringid; 35   query=new tt_kitem_query( ); 36  query.set_type(“AND”); 37   query.set_table(“Notes”); 38  query.add_contains_term(“Content”, keywords); 39   result=newtt_kitem_result( ); 40   result.clear( ); 41  kor.query_kitems(result,query); 42   int i,j; 43   tt_kitem item; 44  res=“(”; 45   for(i=0;i<result.nb_kitems( );i++){ 46   item=result.get_kitem_at(i); 47    if(i==0){ 48    for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++){ 49     res=res+item.column_name(j)+“,”; 50     } 51    res=res+item.column_name(j)+“)”; 52    } 53    res=res+“,(”; 54 55   intid=item.kitem_id( ); 56    stringid=itos(intid); 57   res=res+stringid; 58    res=res+“,”; 59 60   for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++) 61     { 62     attr_value=item.content(j); 63      attr_value=attr_value.encode(); 64      res=res+attr_value; 65      res=res+“,”; 66     } 67   attr_value=item.content(j); 68    attr_value=attr_value.encode( ); 69   res=res+attr_value; 70    res=res+“)”; 71   } 72   return res; 73  }74 75 76  tt_string search_equal(tt_string keywords){ 77   tt_kor kor;78   kor=get_tt_kor( ); 79   tt_kitem_result result; 80   tt_kitem_queryquery; 81   tt_string res; 82   tt_string attr_value; 83   int intid; 84  tt_string stringid; 85   query=new tt_kitem_query( ); 86  query.set_type(“AND”); 87   query.set_table(“Notes”); 88  query.add_equal_term(“Author”, keywords); 89   result=newtt_kitem_result( ); 90   result.clear( ); 91  kor.query_kitems(result,query); 92   int i,j; 93   tt_kitem item; 94  res=“(”; 95   for(i=0;i<result.nb_kitems( );i++){ 96   item=result.get_kitem_at(i); 97    if(i==0){ 98    for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++){ 99     res=res+item.column_name(j)+“,”; 100      } 101     res=res+item.column_name(j)+“)”; 102     } 103     res=res+“, (”;104 105    intid=item.kitem_id( ); 106    stringid=itos(intid); 107   res=res+stringid; 108    res=res+“,”; 109 110   for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++) 111     { 112     attr_value=item.content(j); 113      attr_value=attr_value.encode(); 114      res=res+attr_value; 115      res=res+“,”; 116     } 117   attr_value=item.content(j); 118    attr_value=attr_value.encode( );119    res=res+attr_value; 120    res=res+“)”; 121   } 122   return res;123  } 124  tt_string show_all( ){ 125   tt_kor kor; 126  kor=get_tt_kor( ); 127   tt_kitem_result result; 128   tt_kitem_queryquery; 129   tt_string res; 130   tt_string attr_value; 131   int intid;132   tt_string stringid; 133   query=new tt_kitem_query( ); 134  query.set_type(“AND”); 135   query.set_table(“Notes”); 136  result=new tt_kitem_result( ); 137   result.clear( ); 138  kor.query_kitems (result,query); 139   int i,j; 140   tt_kitem item;141   res=“(”; 142   for(i=0;i<result.nb_kitems( );i++){ 143   item=result.get_kitem_at(i); 144    if(i==0){ 145    for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++){ 146     res=res+item.column_name(j)+“,”; 147     } 148    res=res+item.column_name(j)+“)”; 149    } 150    res=res+“,(”; 151152    intid=item.kitem_id( ); 153    stringid=itos (intid); 154   res=res+stringid; 155    res=res+“,”; 156 157   for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++) 158     { 159     attr_value=item.content(j); 160      attr_value=attr_value.encode(); 161      res=res+attr_value; 162      res=res+“, ”; 163     } 164   attr_value=item.content(j); 165    attr_value=attr_value.encode( );166    res=res+attr_value; 167    res=res+“)”; 168   } 169   return res;170  } 171 172  tt_string delnote (tt_string id){ 173    tt_kor kor; 174   tt_string result; 175    kor=get_tt_kor( ); 176    int flag; 177   int intid; 178    intid=stoi (id); 179   flag=kor.delete_kitem(“Notes”,intid); 180    if(flag==0){ 181   result=“ERROR”; 182    }else{ 183    result=“OK”; 184    } 185  return result; 186  } 187 188  tt_pred add_note_pred(note); 189 add —note — pred.sequence(“$note add — note{ X }$”); 190  triggeradd_note_pred{ 191    tt_string str; 192    tt_kitem item; 193    tt_korkor; 194    tt_time time; 195    tt_gad_conversation econv; 196    intid; 197 198    econv=get_tt_gad_conversation( ); 199    kor=get_tt_kor(); 200    item=new tt_kitem( ); 201    item.set_table(“Notes”); 202   str=econv.get_user_name( ); 203    item.add_pair(“Author”,str); 204   time=get_time( ); 205    str=time.get_date( ); 206   item.add_pair(“Date”,str); 207    str=tf.note; 208   item.add_pair(“Content”,str); 209 210    id=kor.add_kitem(item); 211   if(id!=−1){ 212    econv.set_answer_string(“Note added.”); 213     }214     return 1; 215  } 216 217  tt_pred search_note(keyword); 218search — note.sequence(“$note search — keyword{ X }$”); 219  triggersearch_note{ 220   print(“searching for keyword:”+tf.keyword); 221  tt_kor kor; 222   kor=get_tt_kor( ); 223   tt_kitem_result result; 224  tt_kitem_query query; 225   tt_string res; 226   tt_kitem item; 227  int i,j; 228 229   query=new tt_kitem_query( ); 230  query.set_type(“AND”); 231   query.set_table(“Notes”); 232  query.add_contains_term(“Content”,tf.keyword); 233   result=newtt_kitem_result( ); 234   result.clear( ); 235   kor.query_kitems(result,query); 236   if(result.nb_kitems( )>0){ 237   print(“SearchingSuccessful. Here is the results:”); 238    for(i=0;i<result.nb_kitems();i++){ 239     item=result.get_kitem_at(i); 240     res=“(”; 241    for(j=0;j<item.nb_columns( )−1;j++){ 242     res=res+item.column_name(j); 243      res=res+“,”; 244     res=res+item.content(j); 245      res=res+“ | ”; 246     } 247    res=res+item.column_name(j); 248     res=res+“,”; 249    res=res+item.content(j); 250 251     res=res+“)”; 252    print(res); 253     } 254    }else{ 255     print(“No Results.”);256    } 257     return 1; 258   }The HTML and JavaScript Code

When the administrator clicks on the “edit” link of the main window, awindow similar to the one of FIG. 83. In this window, it is possible tomodify in any way the HTML and Javascript code used by the end-userbrowser when looking at that particular page or application. Thecomplete HTML and Javascript code is given below, with sections boldedto display code that makes the HTTPXmlRequest in order to execute the TTcode on the GAD servers. Note the method call “tt.executeFunction” onlines 262, 280, 342, 357, 372, 479 and 555 (these lines are bolded inthe code below). For instance, on line 262, the function is issuing anHTTPXmlRequest which will be forwarded to the GAD servers which willexecute the function “add note” with the arguments “author”, “date” and“content”.

The systems and methods described above may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The article of manufacture may be a floppy disk, a harddisk, a CD-ROM, a flash memory card, a PROM, a RAM, a ROM, or a magnetictape. In general, the computer-readable programs may be implemented inany programming language, LISP, PERL, C, C++, PROLOG, or any byte codelanguage such as JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in oneor more articles of manufacture as object code.

Having described certain embodiments of methods and systems for hostinga programming environment and processing user input within aninformation retrieval system, it will now become apparent to one ofskill in the art that other embodiments incorporating the concepts ofthe invention may be used. Therefore, the invention should not belimited to certain embodiments, but rather should be limited only by thespirit and scope of the following claims.

1. A computer implemented method of processing user input to aninformation retrieval component within a computer wherein the computerimplemented method includes a defining session between a user and aninformation retrieval component and an execution session between theuser and an information retrieval component, the computer implementedmethod comprising: during the defining session: (a) receiving andstoring a user generated definition of an expression type wherein theexpression type is capable of being characterized as a (i) query seekinginformation from the information retrieval component, (ii) a statementseeking to add new information to the information retrieval component,and (iii) a command to perform an action, wherein the definition of theexpression type specifies an expression format having a semanticstructure, a response type, and a display format; during the executionsession: (b) receiving a user generated expression having a semanticstructure that matches a semantic structure that was received and storedduring the defining session; (c) identifying an expression type for thereceived expression by determining: (i) whether the received expressionsemantically matches a command; (ii) whether the received expression isan answer to a question; (iii) whether a query of the informationretrieval component using the received expression exactly as phrasedresults in identification of stored information associated with thereceived expression; and (iv) whether the received expression is animplicit command to add data to the information retrieval component; (d)processing the received expression according to the response typespecified by the definition of the expression type for the receivedexpression; and (e) causing a response to the received expression to bedisplayed to the user according to the display format specified by thedefinition of the identified expression type for the receivedexpression.
 2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 furthercomprising: (g) modifying a user interface responsive to the displayformat specified in the received definition of an expression type. 3.The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the expressionformat represents a command to execute a computer program.
 4. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the display formatidentifies a format of an element of a user interface displaying aresponse of the specified response type to an expression having thedefined expression format.
 5. The computer implemented method of claim1, wherein the display format modifies an element of a user interfacedisplaying a response to the received expression.
 6. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the received expression comprisesa string having a semantic structure.
 7. The computer implemented methodof claim 1, wherein the received expression comprises a plurality ofwords having a semantic structure.
 8. The computer implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the received expression comprises a question having asemantic structure.
 9. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein step (c) further comprises evaluating a linguistic pattern ofthe received expression.
 10. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein step (c) further comprises evaluating a word order of thereceived expression.
 11. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein step (c) further comprises identifying the received expressionas an expression having the expression format specified by the receiveddefinition.
 12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein step(c) further comprises identifying the received expression as a command.13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein step (c) furthercomprises identifying the received expression as a command to execute acomputer program.
 14. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein step (c) further comprises identifying the received expressionas a command to modify a user interface.
 15. An information retrievalsystem hosted and executing within a computer network comprising: aninformation retrieval component in communication with a search index anda collection of information; and a user interface module incommunication with the information retrieval component, the userinterface module comprising: a transceiver for receiving, during adefining session between a user and the information retrieval system, auser generated definition of an expression type wherein the expressiontype can be one of a query seeking information from the informationretrieval component, a statement seeking to add new information to theinformation retrieval component, and a command to perform an action, thedefinition of the expression type specifying an expression format havinga semantic structure, a response type, and a display format, and duringan execution session between a user and the information retrievalsystem, a user generated expression having a semantic structure thatmatches a semantic structure that was received and stored during thedefining session; a semantic evaluator for evaluating the semanticstructure of the received expression by determining: (i) whether thesemantic structure matches a command; (ii) whether the semanticstructure represents an answer to a question; (iii) whether a query ofthe information retrieval component using the received expressionexactly as phrased results in identification of stored informationassociated with the received expression; and (iv) whether the semanticstructure is an implicit command to add data to the informationretrieval component; a processor for processing the received expressionaccording to the response type specified in the definition of theexpression type for the received expression; a display componentdisplaying a generated response according to the display formatspecified in the definition of the expression type for the receivedexpression; and a storage device for storing the definition of anexpression type.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the displaycomponent further comprises a means for modifying a user interfacedisplayed to the user in the defining session, responsive to the displayformat specified in the definition.
 17. The system of claim 15, whereinthe expression type identifies an expression as a command to execute acomputer program.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein the display formatidentifies a format for an element of a user interface displaying aresponse of the specified response type to an expression having thedefined expression format.
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein thedisplay format modifies an element of a user interface displaying aresponse to the received expression.
 20. The system of claim 15, whereinan expression received during an execution session is a string having asemantic structure.
 21. The system of claim 15, wherein an expressionreceived during an execution session is a plurality of words having asemantic structure.
 22. The system of claim 15, wherein an expressionreceived during an execution session is a question having a semanticstructure.
 23. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic evaluatorfurther comprises a means for evaluating a linguistic pattern of theexpression.
 24. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic evaluatorfurther comprises a means for evaluating a word order of the expression.25. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic evaluator furthercomprises a means for identifying the expression as a command.
 26. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the semantic evaluator further comprises ameans for identifying the expression as a command to execute a computerprogram.
 27. The system of claim 15, wherein the semantic evaluatorfurther comprises a means for identifying the expression as a command tomodify a user interface.
 28. A tangible computer readable medium storinga computer program product for processing input to an informationretrieval system within a computer network, the computer readable mediumcomprising: computer program code for receiving a user generateddefinition of an expression type wherein the expression type can be oneof a query seeking information from the information retrieval component,a statement seeking to add new information to the information retrievalcomponent, and a command to perform an action, each expression typecomprised of an expression format having a semantic structure, aresponse type and a display format; computer program code for storingthe expression types; computer program code for receiving user generatedinput in the form of an expression having a semantic structure; computerprogram code for matching the semantic structure of the expression toone of the stored semantic structures by determining: (i) whether thesemantic structure matches a command; (ii) whether the semanticstructure represents an answer to a question; (iii) whether a query ofthe information retrieval component using the received expressionexactly as phrased results in identification of stored informationassociated with the received expression; and (iv) whether the semanticstructure is an implicit command to add data to the informationretrieval component; computer program code for processing the expressionaccording to the response type associated with the matched expressionformat; and computer program code for displaying a result of theprocessed expression according to the display format associated with thematched expression format.